Tampabay: Medical helicopter crashes since 1990

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

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.