By Francesca Jarosz
Indianapolis Star
 Photo courtesy of Air Evac Lifeteam Pilot Roger Wareen, flight nurse Sandi Pearson, and paramedic Weston Wade. |
DECATUR COUNTY, Ind. — A rotor came off a medical helicopter before the copter crashed this weekend in Decatur County, killing its three crew members, safety officials said Tuesday.
The cause of the rotor’s failure remains under investigation, and a preliminary report will be released in the next 10 days, said Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident. The final report is expected within nine to 15 months.
Knudson said investigators found rotor blades about 200 yards from the main body of the helicopter, which was burned in a post-crash fire.
“There were witness reports of debris coming from the helicopter while it was in the air,” he said.
The accident occurred Sunday shortly after the three-person crew departed a fire station in Burney for its base at Rush Memorial Hospital in Rushville. The crew members had been on a goodwill outing at the annual antique tractor pull and hog roast in Burney, about 40 miles southeast of Indianapolis.
Their helicopter crashed in a field outside Burney. Knudson said the wreckage was found about 1.2 miles from the fire station.
The three crew members -- pilot Roger Warren, 43, flight nurse Sandra Pearson, 38, and paramedic and base manager Wade Weston, also 38 -- died instantly.
The helicopter was operated by Missouri-based Air Evac EMS, which operates 79 air bases in 13 states.
Company spokeswoman Julie Heavrin said Air Evac never has had a rotor come off an aircraft and could not comment on the cause. This is the company’s fifth crash in recent years and its second fatal crash in Indiana since 2004.
From 2002 to 2005, 55 medical aircraft accidents in the United States resulted in 55 deaths, according to the NTSB.
In a 2006 report, the agency criticized the Federal Aviation Administration for not ordering the medical air evacuation industry to improve its safety record.
The company’s four Indiana air bases, including the ones in Evansville, Paoli and Brazil, remained closed Tuesday while crews underwent a “critical incident stress debriefing,” Heavrin said.
“All of the crew members have flown at the various bases and know the other crews, so it’s especially tough,” Heavrin said, adding that there was no date set for when crews in other bases would return to work.
Warren, Otsego, Mich., described by friends as “the life of the party,” joined Air Evac in June 2006 at a base in Effingham, Ill. He became the base pilot supervisor for the Rushville operation, according to a company news release.
Pearson, Avon, a mother of two, joined the company in 2002 and worked at two other Indiana bases before joining the Rushville base. Colleagues called her a loving nurse who often followed up with a patient’s family after a flight.
Weston, Cambridge City, a base manager who joined the company a year ago, was a former volunteer firefighter. He had a wife and two daughters.