Air ambulance crashes in North Carolina; patient, crew survive, US
A patient and three crew members survived when a Life Force medical transport helicopter crashed in North Carolina in the US, authorities said. Macon County 911 Communications Supervisor Todd Seagle said the helicopter went down moments after it declared an emergency around 19h00 on Thursday, 9 March 2023. Macon County Sheriff Brent Holbrooks said the EC-135 helicopter was transporting a patient from Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital in Peachtree to Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, when it crashed in Macon County. Holbrooks confirmed all four people on the flight were alive.
Three people involved in the crash were transported by ambulance to Mission Hospital with minor to moderate injuries and one was transported to Angel Medical Centre for evaluation, Macon County Emergency Services Director Warren Cabe said.
The aircraft was severely damaged. Investigators were examining the wreckage to determine the cause of the crash, Cabe said.
Erlanger Health System in Tennessee, which operates Life Force medical transport helicopters, confirmed the crash of Life Force 6. The company’s website said the helicopter operates out of Cherokee County, North Carolina, with a base radius of 241 kilometres.
This was the first crash in the 34-year history of the Life Force programme, Erlanger Health System said.