ARCH Air Medical Service, Inc - Non-injury incident

DATE	
	May 24, 2005 2137 hrs CST

PROGRAM	
	ARCH Air Medical Service, Inc

VENDOR	
	Lifenet, Inc.

ADDRESS	
	2207 Scott Avenue
	St. Louis, MO  63103

WEATHER	
	Clear. Not a factor

AIRCRAFT_TYPE	
	BK 117

TAIL#	
	N770SL

TEAM	
	Pilot. No injuries reported. No patient. 

DESCRIPTION	
	On the evening of Tuesday, May 24th, 2005 ARCH 7 was completing a
	routine transport.  After dropping off the Flight Nurse, Flight
	Paramedic and Patient at Barnes Hospital (St. Louis, MO) the aircraft
	departed to ARCH base downtown St. Louis for fuel.  Approximately 30
	seconds away from landing the Pilot got a door light and immediately
	heard a loud sound which was the left sliding door hitting the main
	rotor as well as the tail rotor.  The Pilot then notified the
	Communications Center that he was going to make a precautionary
	landing at Downtown Parks Airport.  Pilot landed without incident. 
	Unknown at this time what caused the door to depart from the
	aircraft.  The Pilot did a walk around prior to take off, nothing out
	of the ordinary was noticed and all caution lights were off prior to
	liftoff.

ADDITIONAL INFO	
	After recovering the last piece of the door, the maintenance
	department is looking into the jettison function of the door to
	determine if there was a malfunction and/or tampering.
	
	Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. 
	314-655-4042

SOURCE	
	Matt Kasten, EMT-P, Program Director

VIA	
	David Kearns, CONCERN Coordinator
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The CONCERN network shares verified information to alert medical
transport programs when an accident / incident has occurred.
Please share the above information with your program staff. If
you have further questions, please contact the CONCERN Coordinator,
David Kearns at 800 525 3712 or email: coordinator@concern-network.org.