Three crew members dead after medical helicopter crashes in town of Hazelhurst
TOWN OF HAZELHURST - A pilot and two medical crew members died when their helicopter crashed late Thursday night in Hazelhurst, in a wooded area south of Minocqua in Oneida County.
The Ascension Spirit helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, crashed while returning to a hospital in Woodruff after transporting a patient to Madison, according to Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
Just hours before the crash on Thursday, Ascension Wisconsin Spirit Medical Transport shared photos of the same helicopter on its Facebook page, as part of a message about a staff meeting at Rondele Ranch in Harshaw.
The crash prompted Ascension Wisconsin and Air Methods, which jointly operate the emergency helicopter service, to temporarily suspend air and ground medical transport services on Friday.
A USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporter escorted to the scene Friday said the helicopter's cabin was crushed, its rotors appeared to have been sheered off and a debris trail could be seen for more than 100 yards leading to the crash site. A constant beeping could still be heard coming from the wreckage, although it was unclear what was making the sound.
The helicopter lost contact with a GPS tracking system used by the operator at 10:43 p.m., Knudson said, and crashed in a wooded area near the Bearskin State Trail and South Blue Lake. The crash site is about a half mile off South Blue Lake Road, which is lined with what appeared to be vacant summer homes.
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The crash happened about 12 miles south of the medical helicopter’s destination, according to Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
An NTSB investigator arrived at the crash scene Friday afternoon to document the site and collect evidence.
The Oneida County Dispatch Center got a call about the missing helicopter at 11:22 p.m. The last known contact with the helicopter was at 10:55 p.m., the sheriff’s office said. A crew of emergency responders searched the area and found the helicopter in the town of Hazelhurst.
Rich Mamrosh, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Green Bay, said skies were clear and winds were calm, with temperatures slightly above freezing, at the nearest weather stations — Rhinelander and Arbor Vitae — around the time of the crash.
Ascension and Air Methods issued a joint statement Friday expressing sorrow and declining to identify the crew members. The pilot was an Air Methods employee and the other two crew members worked for Ascension, which also operates the Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff.
"We are deeply saddened and mourning the loss of three teammates," the statement said.
"In addition, we have made the decision to suspend operations of our air and ground medical transport units until we determine when it is appropriate to resume operations," the statement said. "We are working with our EMS partners and medical transportation colleagues in the region to meet the needs of patient transport."
ThedaStar, an air medical service operated by ThedaCare, also released a statement Friday morning about the Spirit Air Medical crash.
"We at ThedaStar are profoundly saddened by the loss of the valued emergency medical services colleagues and friends at Spirit," the statement said. "We are a small, close community and this affects the entire Wisconsin air medical family."
At least four people have died in medical helicopter crashes in Wisconsin since 2006, according to a review of a National Transportation Safety Board database by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.
A surgeon, nurse and pilot died when a University of Wisconsin Hospital Med Flight crashed May 10, 2008, after refueling and taking off from La Crosse, the Associated Press reported at the time.
A pilot died after a County Rescue helicopter crashed April 13, 2006, during a maintenance flight in Bellevue, according to a Green Bay Press-Gazette report.
The story will be updated as more information becomes available.