BAYFLIGHT CRASH [Times photo: Boysell Hosey] Main story Their credo, self-sacrifice, was also their shared fate Like all flying, rescuing injured by air has risks Helicopter type has history of problems, fatal crashes Medical helicopter crashes since 1990 Donations for victims' families Photos from the crash scene

By Times News Researcher Kitty Bennett, Times wires, Times files

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 26, 2000

2000

• March: A medical helicopter carrying a 4-month-old girl with breathing problems crashes near the Texas-Oklahoma border shortly after taking off in fog, killing the baby and the three-person crew.

1999

• April: A pilot and two nurses die when their medical helicopter crashes in snowy weather shortly after delivering a patient to a hospital in Nevada.
• June: A University of Kentucky medical helicopter returning to base at night in the fog crashes in eastern Kentucky, killing two pilots, a flight nurse and a paramedic.
• July: A medevac helicopter crashes near Houston. Witnesses say pieces "shoot out" of the chopper's rotor head just before it crashes, killing the pilot, a paramedic and a nurse. The next month, the FAA grounds more than 20 percent of the helicopters that hospitals use to transport critically ill patients until tension-torsion straps -- four bands in the main rotor head -- are replaced.

1998

• January: After picking up an injured skier near Salt Lake City, a University of Utah helicopter crashes in a storm, killing the man and three crew members.
• March: An emergency helicopter with a 12-year-old accident victim on board crashes in Los Angeles, killing the girl and three firefighters.
• August: A medical helicopter en route to a hospital to pick up a patient crashes and burns in a soybean field in Iowa, killing all three people aboard.

1997

• December: A helicopter taking a traffic accident victim to a hospital near Denver becomes tangled in power lines and crashes, killing three crew members and the patient.

1995

• September: A helicopter on its way to pick up a woman in labor crashes into Puget Sound near Seattle, killing two nurses and the pilot.

1994

• November: A Tallahassee Regional Medical Center helicopter crashes on its way to pick up a patient, killing the pilot and a paramedic. A nurse suffers burns and facial fractures.
• December: A helicopter en route to pick up a patient crashes near Ann Arbor, Mich., killing a doctor, a nurse and the pilot.

1991

• January: After transferring a young patient to a hospital in Pennsylvania, a hospital helicopter slams into a mountainside, killing all four crew members.
• November: In Reno, Nev., a helicopter flying an accident victim to a hospital crashes, killing all four people aboard.

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