TWO AIR AMBULANCES, BOTH BELL 407 HELICOPTERS, COLLIDED IN THE AIR near a hospital in Flagstaff, Arizona, Sunday afternoon.

Flagstaff firefighters knock down remaining
hot spots of one of the helicopters.
(Flagstaff Police Dept. photo)

The latest count has six people dead and one critically injured.  The two aircraft were approaching the Flagstaff Medical Center when they collided around 3:45 pm local time.  One of the planes was operated by Air Methods Corp. of Englewood, Colorado, and had three people onboard including a patient.  All three perished.

The other aircraft was operated by Classic Helicopters of Woods Cross, Utah, and had four people onboard.  Three of them died and the fourth, a nurse, was critically injured.  Both helicopters were headed for the hospital and were less than a mile away from the facility when they hit and spun out of control.  Fire officials said one landed on Switzer Mesa - also called McMillan Mesa - and  other landed downhill in a heavily wooded area.

KTVK

A spokesman for the Flagstaff Police Dept. said two rescue workers were slightly injured in a secondary blast as one of the helicopters on the ground exploded.  “They were treated for minor burns injuries [sic] and were released from the hospital in good condition,” Sergeant Tom Boughner told a Reuters reporter by telephone from the crash site.

The crash started a brush fire that burned 10-15 acres before it was contained.

Flagstaff Police Dept. photo

The Arizona Republic has the latest REPORT.

The Associated Press has this video report:

 

A MAJOR IMPROVEMENT IN JET ENGINE DESIGN has generated excitement in aviation circles.  Dave Demerjian of WIRED magazine starts his story:

Pratt & Whitney has spent the better part of two decades developing the geared turbofan engine that burns 12 to 15 percent less fuel than other jet engines and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 1,500 tons per plane per year. It’s being called one of the most exciting developments commercial aviation has seen in years…

“It’s technology like that geared turbofan that’s going to drive fuel efficiency forward for this industry in the short and medium term,” says Earnest Arvi of the Arvi Group. “Alternative fuels show great potential, but they’re decades away.”

What makes this fan jet different from the others is the geared turbine.   Current jet engines have fans that suck air into the combustion chamber, where it is compressed, mixed with fuel, and ignited. Then it’s blown through a turbine, generating thrust. It works, but it’s inefficient because the fan is connected to the engine and turns at the same speed as the turbine. Fans work best at low speed, while turbines work best at high speed.

Pratt & Whitney solved that problem with a gearbox that lets the fan and turbine spin independently. The fan is larger and it spins at one-third the speed of the turbine, creating a quieter, more powerful engine the company says requires less fuel, emits less C02 and costs 30 percent less to maintain.

 The new engine is expected to be in production by 2013.

Pratt & Whitney photo

For the full details, read the complete article HERE and you also learn some other interesting tidbits such as:  If every commercial flight in the U. S. could shave 1 minute off its flight time, there would be a savings of 1.9 million tons of fuel annually.

A BRUSH FIRE WAS STARTED ABOUT 20 MILES NW OF LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, Saturday when a private airplane crashed onto a mountain.

CBS / Rick Plummer photo

The single-engine Piper Cherokee had four people on board and was flying from North Las Vegas to Byron, California, when it struck a power line and crashed.  All four passengers perished when the plane hit and broke into flames at the 7,000 ft. level of Mt. Charleston.

CBS / Plummer

Fire officials say the fire spread and climbed the steep and parched terrain of the Spring Mountain Recreation Area and came within a half-mile of a housing subdivision.  Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon says nearly 40 homes are threatened by the 12-acre fire.

CBS / Plummer 

Authorities have ordered an evacuation of the subdivision. They expect to fully contain the blaze by 6 p.m. Sunday.

Fox News has the STORY.
Las Vegas Channel 8 has a video REPORT.

TECHNICALLY, IT WAS A CORRECT DISPATCH.  But when the Windsor, Ontario, firefighters arrived on the scene they weren’t expecting to find an airplane on fire beside the roadway.

A small, 2-seater plane had just left the Windsor airport a short while before when the engine conked out and the plane began to descend.  The pilot was trying to guide the plane onto a highway when the wheels clipped a power line and flipped the plane onto the grassy area between the road and a railroad track.

Windsor Star photo of the crumpled remains
of the small plane that crashed Sunday.

A neighbor, George Demarce, who saw the crash grabbed his attached garden hose and pulled it as close to the flaming wreckage as possible.  “I just sprayed as much as I could,” he said.  “That one guy stuck inside was yelling pretty good. He was engulfed in flames,” Demarce’s wife Jan said later. “Seeing someone on fire, it’s scary. But you still carry on with what you have to do.” 

His actions no doubt helped save the lives of the two men who were trapped and burning aboard the plane.  Both of them are in the hospital with burns and related injuries.

The Windsor Star has the complete STORY.

THE AURORA MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, JUST WEST OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, had to call the Sugar Grove Fire Protection District Saturday afternoon after a home-made aircraft crashed and burned.

WMAQ

Or more precisely, burned and crashed.  The unidentified pilot had just taken off when a fire flared up in the engine compartment.  He immediately returned to the private airstrip and attempted an emergency landing.  But when he touched down, his landing gear collapsed and he skidded out of control about 1,000 feet down the runway before coming to a stop.

He then bailed out of the burning airplane, but escaped with only some singeing to the back of his head.  It isn’t known yet if he was authorized to use the plane.  By the time the FD arrived on the scene, the fire was pretty well out and the plane was completely destroyed.

Chicago Ch. 5 has the STORY.

AIR TREK, ONE OF AMERICA’S OLDEST AND LARGEST AIR AMBULANCE SERVICES, has had its operating license revoked.

In late February, Firegeezer reported HERE on a surprise raid by Federal authorities on Air Trek’s main offices in Punta Gorda, Charlotte County, Florida.  Following an investigation into Air Trek’s maintenance records and operating practices, the FAA at first suspended their operating license on May 23.

Air Trek had three crashes in three years’ time resulting in six fatalities.  In addition, it was discovered that their maintenance records were not in accord with their actual practices.  On June 5 the FAA inspectors attempted to conduct further inspections of their aircraft at the Punta Gorda airport and were denied access to the planes.  The inspectors were asked to vacate the firm’s property.

As a result of these actual and attemped inspections, the FAA has determined that Air Trek “is unable or unwilling to maintain operational control of its air carrier operations” and that they are “unable or unwilling to operate to the highest degree of safety….”  The agency then fully revoked Air Trek’s operational authority on June 10.

The FAA’s emergency revocation letter cited 14 air traffic safety regulation violations, including flying aircraft that had not been deemed safe, failure to follow weight guidelines, deceptively recording maintenance shortfalls, allowing pilots to make international flights without proper training or certification, and letting pilots fly after they had failed required tests. 

You can read the entire 34-page letter at the airtrek1 watchdog group’s website HERE (.pdf format).

Air Trek employs about 50 pilots and physicians and is currently down to 8 aircraft.  They were licensed to fly to anyplace in the Western Hemisphere including Cuba.  A large portion of their business was Dept. of Defense contracts to transport sick and injured military personnel.

Clicking on Air Trek’s WEBSITE brings up an “under construction” message.  The aforementioned watchdog group’s website has a large body of information about the firm and its operations HERE.

THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION IS TAKING A CLOSE LOOK  at air ambulance operations.  There have been four fatal crashes in less than six months and they want to know if it’s indicative of a trend, or just an “unfortunate cluster” of events.

LaCrosse Tribune photo

A similar rash of accidents in 2006 generated a safety review that resulted in new rules forcing pilots to be more cautious, especially at night and in poor weather.  These last four crashes, which killed 13 people, all took place at night and in areas where the pilots had no visual points for reference, such as over forests or bodies of water.

“The recent spate of accidents has the FAA’s full attention.” Alison Duquette, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration told USA Today.

Read the complete USA Today article HERE.

THE 19-YR.-OLD COMPASS AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANT who was arrested last month (Firegeezer report HERE) for setting a fire in his plane while aloft, pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday in Fargo.

Compass Airlines stock photo

The airplane was en route from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, and carrying 72 passengers when Eder Rojas went into the rear lavatory and set the paper towels in a wall dispenser on fire.  The plane had to make an emergency landing in Fargo, North Dakota.  Rojas was arrested a week later after questioning and has been held without bail.

After Thursday’s hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Klein released Rojas to the custody of his father, Juan Rojas, of Chicago. Prosecutors had asked Klein to keep Rojas in jail.

During the hearing, prosecuters disclosed that Rojas was also on a plane five weeks earlier that had a similar fire in the bathroom and he helped put that fire out, too.  That case is still under investigation, however.

Trial is scheduled for July 21. Rojas faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He may be ordered to pay restitution for damage to the plane.

The Associated Press has the latest report HERE.
Compass Airlines WEBSITE.

IN GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, THIS MORNING an Aero-Med helicopter struck a rooftop radio tower at the Spectrum Hospital and crashed onto the heliport, breaking into flames and spewing raw fuel into the stairwell.

WXMI photo

The helicopter was on a training mission with an FAA official riding with the sole pilot as he performed “touch and go” landings at the heliport.  An eyewitness told Ch. 13 that the plane touched down and then rose up quite high when the tail rotor clipped the tower, crashed back down on the helipad and was thrown over onto its side.  The two men on board both bailed out and safely got away from the craft before it burst into flames.  The fuel spill into the stairway caused further confusion inside the pediatric unit which is located just under the landing zone.

The hospital went immediately into shutdown and the three floors immediately beneath the crash zone were evacuated.  Early reports say that it went very smoothly and there were no injuries at all during this incident.

Grand Rapids Press/Bird photo

The fire, which generated a spectacular smoke plume, was apparently confined to the crash scene and was controlled soon after.  What could have become a major disaster was quickly quelled into just a bad rooftop fire.  All the patients that had been evacuated were returned to their rooms about an hour later.

The Sikorski helicopter was similar
to this one from the same fleet.  (WOOD)

The Grand Rapids Press has a timeline of the event HERE.

ABC News has about a half-minute of raw video taken early on in the fire:

Firegeezer can’t help but think of all the paperwork this one’s going to generate.

A FLIGHT ATTENDANT FOR COMPASS AIRLINES WAS ARRESTED Wednesday and charged yesterday with setting a fire onboard his aircraft during flight.

Eder Rojas, 19, is being held without bail after admitting that he started the fire on May 7 in the plane’s bathroom.  He said that he was angry that the airline was making him work that particular route.  The plane was on a flight from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, and was carrying 72 passengers plus four crew members.

The Associated Press reports:

“Rojas further stated that he was preparing his cart to serve the passengers, he set the cart up, went back to the lavatory and reached in with his right hand and lit the paper towels with the lighter,” court documents said.

Pilot Steve Peterka told authorities that an indicator light came on about 35 minutes into the flight, showing smoke in the rear bathroom.

Peterka called Rojas, who was assigned passengers in the back of the plane, and asked him to check the bathroom, documents said. Rojas, another flight attendant and a passenger were credited with quickly putting out the flames with fire extinguishers, authorities said.

Investigators later found a lighter in one of the overhead bins. Rojas confessed after authorities interviewed him, the complaint said.

The plane was in the vicinity of Fargo, North Dakota, when the fire was started.  The pilot then took an emergency action and flew directly to the Fargo airport, descending from 30,000 ft. to touchdown in eight minutes.

The plane was met by the airport crash/rescue crew along with police and FBI agents.

Compass is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines.  A company spokesman says that Rojas has been fired.

You can read some of the passengers’ accounts of the emergency HERE.
The AP story on the arrest is HERE.