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Medical helicopter crashes in Illinois

A medical helicopter carrying a one-year-old patient crashed and burned in a suburban Chicago forest preserve overnight, killing all four aboard. The aircraft apparently clipped a radio tower, and authorities investigated on Thursday whether the tower’s lights had been on.

It was the sixth fatal crash involving medical helicopters in the US this year, according to federal data, including one just last month in Maryland that also killed four.

The helicopter carrying one-year-old Kirstian Blockinger was headed for Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago from a hospital 80km away when it went down minutes before midnight on Wednesday, Aurora police spokesman Sergeant Rob Wallers said.

John Brannen of the National Transportation Safety Board said the helicopter apparently clipped the radio tower support wire before the crash. A snapped wire hung from the 224m tower, which stands across a busy road from the crash site.

Brannen said the helicopter was flying about 1m below the top of the tower when the wire was clipped. He said NTSB was investigating whether lights on the tower were on at the time or could have been knocked out during the incident.

Authorities said engineers were evaluating the tower’s stability.

No one on the ground was hurt.

Children’s Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Julie Pesch said the child was being moved to Chicago after a closer hospital had no room for her there.

Eva Blockinger, 89, said Kirstian was her great-granddaughter and said that the girl was often ill and suffered from seizures.

Wallers said the helicopter belonged to Air Angels Inc, an emergency medical transport service based in suburban Bolingbrook.

Air Angels CEO Jim Adams told reporters the helicopter’s crew included a pilot, a nurse and a paramedic. The pilot did not report mechanical problems, and weather was not an issue, he said.
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