Benefis Mercy Flight - Fatal accident

Date: 2/6/07 2104 MST

Program: Benefis Mercy Flight
	1101 26th Street S
	Great Falls MT 59405

Type: King Air 200
Tail #: N45MF
Operator/Vendor: Metro Aviation

Weather: Clear. Not a factor

Injuries: 
	Vince Kirol, Pilot - fatal
	Darcy Dengel, Flight Nurse - fatal
	Paul Erickson, Flight Paramedic - fatal
	

Description: 
	At 21:04 MST N45MF, Mercy Flight 2, a fixed wing aircraft enroute to
	Bozeman Montana to transport a head injury back to Great Falls
	stopped transmitting Outerlink tracking data.  The aircraft was 4
	minutes from their destination.  5 minutes later a phone search was
	conducted without success.  The phone search was repeated after a
	second air tracking program listed their ETA as 21:23.  This time the
	ground ambulance meeting the aircraft reported hearing 911 calls of a
	plane crash in the area.  The communication center initiated it's
	PAIP team at this time to assist in the search.  Last Latitude and
	Longitude where called into the Gallatin County 911 office to assist
	SAR teams being called in.  A short time later aircraft wreckage was
	discovered where the Outerlink track was lost.  Ground conditions and
	remote location delayed rescue crews, at 23:35 the Gallatin County
	Sheriff called in to report N45MF had crashed with no survivors.

Additional Info: 
	Representatives from the FAA and NTSB are currently on-site
	investigating the incident and will provide more information when it
	becomes available.

Source: Scott Schandelson, Chief Flight Nurse & Charlie Cole, EMT-P

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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.

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