4 on Rescue Copter Killed in Pr. George's
By Del Quentin Wilber, Matt Zapotosky and Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Maryland State Police rescue helicopter that crashed and killed four people yesterday vanished from radar in worsening weather moments after the pilot reported problems in acquiring a radio signal needed to guide him to its landing spot.
The helicopter went down in dense woods three miles north of Andrews Air Force Base, where the aircraft was rerouted because of the weather after picking up two car crash victims in Southern Maryland.
The helicopter crash, the worst accident in the history of Maryland's rescue helicopter program, prompted authorities to ground the fleet yesterday until air safety investigators make a preliminary finding on the cause. Until then, helicopters from the U.S. Park Police, Delaware and Pennsylvania state police, and commercial companies will cover the state, police said.
Federal transportation investigators will probably not issue a final report on the accident's cause for months. "Certainly, these were challenging conditions for this pilot," said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The helicopter, an American Eurocopter Dauphin II based at Andrews, was carrying five people, including the car accident victims, when it slammed into the middle of Walker Mill Regional Park in Prince George's County, coming down near an area where a paved path crosses a creek. The impact knocked down at least one tree, which toppled on the fuselage.
Rescue workers had to use a crane to lift the tree. A person at the rescue scene described conditions as "very foggy," Hersman said yesterday.
Authorities identified those killed as Stephen J. Bunker, 59, the pilot, a retired state trooper working as a civilian pilot; Trooper Mickey C. Lippy, 34, an onboard paramedic; Tonya Mallard, 39, a volunteer emergency worker from Southern Maryland; and Ashley J. Younger, 17, a recent high school graduate from Waldorf who was one of the car crash victims.
Jordan Wells, 18, of Waldorf, the driver of the car in which Younger had been riding, survived and was hospitalized in critical condition yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
About 10:45 p.m. Saturday, Charles County authorities said, Wells was driving a 2003 Ford Taurus on Smallwood Drive in Waldorf when the car crossed the median, hit several trees, veered into oncoming traffic and collided with a Honda CRX.
Wells and her passenger, Younger, suffered serious injuries. Authorities said yesterday that the accident is under investigation.
One of the local rescue workers responding to the car crash was Mallard, a Waldorf mother of two who had served as an EMT in Waldorf since 2004, according to colleagues at Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department Station 12. Minutes later, the state police helicopter arrived, landing outside a nearby elementary school. Wells and Younger were placed inside.
"Tonya stepped up and said, 'I'll go with them,' " said Dan Stevens, chief of the Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department.
At the controls was Bunker, who joined the state police in 1972, retired in 1998 and returned as a civilian pilot. He was a certified flight instructor and an instrument flight instructor. Also on board was Lippy, who lived in Westminster in Carroll County. Lippy, a four-year member of the state police, joined the aviation command unit as a flight paramedic in April 2007.
The two car crash victims, Wells and Younger, graduated in June from Westlake High School in Waldorf, where the principal yesterday described them as outgoing and popular. Wells was on the yearbook staff and swim team, and she took several advanced placement classes. Younger had served as a class officer.
As the helicopter flew north, the weather -- which minutes before wasn't too bad, with seven miles of visibility and broken clouds reported at 1,300 feet -- deteriorated. Investigators said that visibility at ground level dropped to four miles and that clouds had dropped to 500 feet, with some scattered clouds at 200 feet.
While still south of Andrews, investigators said, Bunker contacted a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control facility just before midnight Saturday, requesting a diversion to the Air Force base, from where ground ambulances could take the two victims to Prince George's Hospital Center.
Because of runway availability, Bunker was told to approach Andrews from the north, investigators said. At some point, he radioed the tower at Andrews to say he was having trouble acquiring the radio signal that provides vertical guidance to the runway.
The controller told Bunker that the system was working on his end, and Bunker then asked for controllers to guide him to the runway using the air base's radar. The helicopter then vanished from the radar. It was traveling about 65 mph, investigators said.
A search was launched about 12:30 a.m. Using technology to track signals from the cellphones of the crew, authorities narrowed the search to an area near Walker Mill Road and Berry Lane.
At 2 a.m. yesterday, a searcher heard Wells calling out for help and found the site. The helicopter had come to rest deep inside the 470-acre Walker Mill Regional Park in an area of tall trees and dense underbrush. To reach it, rescue workers had to use a paved path.
The state police helicopter unit, which operates 12 choppers purchased between 1989 and 1999, has come under scrutiny in recent years, with some legislators questioning its cost-effectiveness. And a recent audit found that the state police lacked reliable data systems to track maintenance requirements and that the unit had high employee turnover. The audit found that "certain tasks were not performed because inspection procedures were not updated in accordance with" FAA and Eurocopter directives.
That same report praised the helicopter unit's safety record, saying it was "well above the national average for emergency medical services." Auditors noted that police performed required inspections. The aviation unit was formed in 1961. Yesterday's crash was its fourth fatal helicopter accident since 1972.
The helicopter that crashed yesterday, called Trooper 2, was purchased in 1989, making it one of the oldest in the fleet. Trooper 2 had just had a maintenance inspection, as it did every 100 hours it was in the air, and was cleared Wednesday to fly.
Regulators and investigators nationwide are examining the safety of medical helicopter operations. From 2002 to early 2006, there were 64 medevac accidents, the vast majority involving helicopters. The accidents resulted in 62 deaths. Two crashes of medical helicopters, both operated by private companies, occurred in the Washington area, one in January 2005 and the other in May 2006.
The rash of crashes led the NTSB to issue a report in January 2006 calling for new safety standards in the fast-growing field.
Del. Charles E. Barkley (D-Montgomery), chairman of the House Appropriations public safety subcommittee, said that the state police have a worthy safety record but that the crash will "renew our efforts to look at it closely."
Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), said it's too early to say whether the accident might have been caused by poor maintenance or defective equipment. But he said O'Malley "remains committed to the goal of replacing the fleet and giving the state police the tools they need to do their jobs."
Staff writers Aaron C. Davis, Hamil R. Harris, Jenna Johnson and Lisa Rein and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
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