Hartford Hospital Life Star - Non-injury incident

Date: 12/23/2007 2107 Est

Program: Hartford Hospital Life Star
	Hartford Hospital
	80 Seymour Street
	Hartford, CT 06112

Type: BK-117
Operator/Vendor: Air Methods Corporation

Weather: Heavy Rain/ Winds

Team: Pilot, Flight Nurse, Flight Resp. Therapist. No injuries reported. No patient. 

Description: 
	Sunday evening just after 2107-hours here at Hartford Hospital, there
	were several fire system ?trouble? alarms received in the
	Communications Center along with fire alarm indicators and water flow
	alarm indicators. Among these alarms were several referenced alarms
	that indicated that the rooftop helipad foam system-water flow monitor
	had activated, as well.  As the fire activation was implemented,
	personnel in the Communication Center observed in the helipad monitors
	that water was streaming from the helipad turrets.  This system was
	quickly deactivated by the on-duty fire safety officer within minutes.
	 There was no foam activation and there was no crew on the helipad
	when the turrets did activate.
	
	At the time of this incident, Life Star 1 was sitting out on the
	helipad.  Although there was no visible damage observed to the
	aircraft, the on-call mechanic was notified to come in to perform a
	more thorough inspection of the aircraft.  The hospital?s fire marshal
	was also notified and did respond as well, to oversee the inspection
	of the fire control systems for the helipads fire suppression system
	and all operations were suspended with the helipad being taken
	out-of-service.

Additional Info: 
	As of Monday morning 12/24/2007 at just about 1000-hours, the
	hospital?s helipad was certified as operational after a thorough
	inspection by the hospital?s servicing vendor and the hospital?s fire
	marshal was completed.  During the inspection process, it was
	determined that there was a bad seal around one of the outside plunger
	activation switches that essentially allowed for water from the heavy
	rain to penetrate the electrical circuitry in the switch housing that
	had led to the activation.  During this inspection process, there was
	also a bad valve that had been located and this was replaced, as
	well.
	
	Subsequent inspection of the helicopter itself just shortly after the
	incident had occurred by the on-duty mechanic indicated that there was
	no damages incurred to the aircraft and it was placed back into
	service.

Source: John R. Spencer Communications Manager

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Copyright 2007 ASTNA