Four people were killed when a medical helicopter crashed during a short flight to a California hospital on Thursday, local fire officials said. At 6:52 p.m., the crew notified flight dispatch that it was leaving Porterville. His team will take the wreckage to Sacramento for a long-term investigation, he said.
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The Skylight helicopter was transporting a critical patient from Porterfield Airport to a Bakersfield hospital when normal communications were lost, said Daniel Lynch, director of Fresno County Emergency Medical Services. “The crew involved were wonderful people”, he said.
The crew was identified by American Ambulance as Pilot Thomas Hampl, Nurse Marco Lopez, and Paramedic Kyle Juarez.
The names of the crew and the patient were not released Thursday night. This was the first fatal incident since the company was founded in 1991, they also said.
SkyLife Air Ambulance operates three air ambulance helicopters out of the Fresno and Visalia airports.
The helicopter had not been heard from for over 30 minutes at the time a search was started, according to KCFD.
Extreme weather conditions might have been a contributing factor in the crash as there was dense fog and heavy rain in the area, said Valeri.
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Todd Valeri, president of SkyLife and American Ambulance said, “This incident is absolutely tragic and has really hit home to our approximately 600 employees at American Ambulance”.
