Md. Families Mourn Deaths of 4 in Helicopter Crash

Jordan Wells, 18

Scott and Lynn Wells are joyful that their bubbly daughter survived both crashes and held on for two hours as rescue crews searched for the helicopter.

But they are grieving the deaths of the others.

"We have mixed emotions," Scott Wells said Monday morning at the trauma center. "We're very, very thankful our daughter is alive . . . but we're deeply aware of the tragedy."

The Wellses did not know about either crash until Prince George's officials contacted them at about 4 a.m. Sunday -- more than five frantic hours after their daughter was expected home.

"Our daughter was missing. We didn't know what was going on," Lynn Wells said. "We still don't know what happened."

Slowly, as they feared for the life of their daughter, the Wellses heard portions of the story and were told that the crash victims included fellow Waldorf residents. The pilot was a family friend. The medic has a son at Westlake.

The crashes left Jordan Wells with a bruised lung and many broken bones. Doctors told her parents that their daughter, the youngest of three children, should be able to walk again.

Doctors operated on Wells's knees and legs Sunday night, alleviating fears that amputation might be necessary. Still, it will take months of recovery and physical therapy before Wells will be able to return to classes at the College of Southern Maryland, where she is a freshman studying psychology. She plans to be a school counselor someday.

"God has a mission for her," Lynn Wells said. "We are so blessed he was watching over her."

Paramedic Trooper Mickey C. Lippy, 34

Lippy was a devoted husband and father who "died doing what he loved, the only thing he had ever wanted to do," his older sister Dawn Childs said.

The family gathered yesterday at Lippy's home in Carroll County to comfort his wife, Christina, who gave birth to the couple's first child, Madison, in May.

"He only got to spend four months with his baby," Childs said, choking back tears.