aircraft & ambulances firegeezer on 05 Jul 2008 10:59 am
Sole Survivor of Arizona Air Amb. Collision Dies
JAMES TAYLOR, A REGISTERED NURSE WHO WAS THE ONLY SURVIVOR of last Sunday’s mid-air collision in Arizona of two helicopter ambulances died on Friday. (Firegeezer report on the collision HERE.)
The 36-yr.-old man had been in critical condition since the accident and was being treated at the Flagstaff Medical Center.
He was a registered nurse at St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City and was working his second job as a flight nurse in Arizona at the time of the crash. He was flying on one helicopter that was ferrying a patient from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to a Flagstaff hospital.
The Associated Press has a video report:
* * * * *
The last of the wreckage from the two helicopters was transported away from the crash scene on Thursday and the NTSB investigators have relocated to Phoenix where they will continue to examine the flight evidence to determine what happened.
Wreckage of the Guardian Air helicopter involved in a midair collision of two medical helicopters sits on a flatbed trailer ready to be transported to Phoenix, where it will be reconstructed as part of the NTSB investigation into the crash. (Jake Bacon/Arizona Daily Sun)
Using flight recording data, they recreated each of the flights on Wednesday looking at angles and sight lines. A surveillance camera at the hospital parking lot a 1/4-mile away recorded the collision in real time and was used to tape the recreations to use as an overlay. One of the tail sections was disclosed to have what appears to be rotor damage on it.
The Arizona Daily Sun has a good story on the current state of the investigation HERE.
