Pilots and dispatchers for two medical helicopters that collided near Flagstaff Medical Center in Arizona on June 29 knew both aircraft were approaching the facility at roughly the same time, according to a federal air-safety report issued today.
The crash killed five crew members and two patients.
A dispatch coordinator responsible for flights into the medical center’s helipad told the Air Methods Corp. pilot that the other craft was en route, and he responded, “Roger, will be looking for ’em, thanks,” according to the preliminary accident report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Air Methods is based in Englewood near Centennial Airport and is the nation’s largest provider of air medical services.
The company provided the pilot and maintenance for the Bell 407 helicopter involved in the accident, which was owned by the Flagstaff Medical Center. Its call sign was “Angel 1.”
The other helicopter, also a Bell 407, was bringing a patient from a Grand Canyon National Park Service helibase to Flagstaff. It was operated by Classic Helicopter Services of Page, Ariz.
Weather at the time was partly cloudy, with light and variable winds, the safety agency said.
The Air Methods copter was bringing a patient from Winslow, Ariz., to the hospital, but the pilot told his dispatcher, Guardian Air dispatch, that he might stop first at Flagstaff’s airport to drop off a crew member because he “was not sure if he would be at the proper weight to land,” the NTSB report said.
Guardian Air dispatch acts as well as overall dispatch coordinator for all flights into the Flagstaff hospital helipad, according to the NTSB.
The NTSB report shows that Classic’s dispatcher contacted Guardian at 3:23 p.m. to report that the Classic copter, call sign “Lifeguard 2,” was heading to Flagstaff.
In the next 24 minutes leading up to the collision, no other radio communication is cited by the NTSB between Lifeguard 2, or its dispatcher, and Guardian Air.
The Air Methods pilot landed at Flagstaff airport to drop off a flight nurse and told the dispatcher at 3:44 p.m., “If you haven’t figured it out, we’ve uh landed at the … (Flagstaff) airport, departed and we’re about two minutes out of the hospital,” the report said.
Three minutes later, the two helicopters collided about one-quarter mile from the hospital helipad.
The NTSB said a surveillance camera, mounted on a parking garage at the hospital, captured the crash, showing one helicopter approaching from the north and the other from the south. It also showed both falling to the ground after the collision.
NTSB accident investigator-in-charge Aaron Sauer said officials still are piecing together a precise, complete timeline of communications.
When helicopters fly into Flagstaff Medical Center, pilots are supposed to monitor the Guardian Air dispatch radio frequency, Sauer said.
Investigators are examining “paint transfers” on portions of the wreckage of both helicopters to try to pinpoint where they struck each other and whether the pilots were trying to make last-second evasive maneuvers to avoid the accident, Sauer said.
Officials also are conducting “visibility studies” to determine whether the pilots might have had “blind spots” as they tried to watch out for the other aircraft.
There were no recorded communications between the two pilots, the NTSB said. The two aircraft did not have cockpit voice recorders or flight data recorders, according to Sauer.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
