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MIAMI — A surgeon and a technician from a Mayo Clinic in Florida flying across the northern corner of the state to retrieve a heart for transplant died Monday in a helicopter crash that also killed the pilot, officials said.
The heart they were going to pick up could not be used in another transplant because its viability expired, and the patient who had been scheduled to receive it is waiting for a new organ, Mayo Clinic spokesman Layne Smith said.
The helicopter went down about 12 miles northeast of Palatka in a remote forested area away from roads, said a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman. The cause of the crash was not known.
