By FERNANDO DEL VALLE / Valley Morning Star
HARLINGEN – Heavy winds ruffled red and white roses that fluttered on the helicopter pad where pilot Robert Goss launched the Valley AirCare helicopter Tuesday.
South Texas Emergency Care board members met late Wednesday morning for a briefing on the accident that killed Goss, paramedic Michael Sanchez and nurse Raul Garcia of San Benito.
Co-workers placed the flowers on the helicopter pad to remember their friends, said Arnold Maldonado, a paramedic.
Goss is from Illinois where he flies a cropduster plane, and works in the Rio Grande Valley during the winter, Rene Perez, director of transport services for South Texas Emergency Care.
Garcia, who now lives in Weslaco and is originally from Laredo, earned his bachelor’s degree in nursing in December and was enrolled in the nurse practitioner program at the University of Texas-Pan American, Perez said. Garcia is the company’s former chief flight nurse.
“We’re still in shock,” Maldonado said as a florist delivered a bouquet of flowers. “We’re in disbelief that it happened. We’re one big family. We’re just trying to deal with it and continue doing our job.”
Maldonado remembered Sanchez, Garcia and Goss as friends who lived to save lives.
“They were very dedicated people,” he said. “They were all veterans. They loved flying. We’re going to miss them greatly.”
The tragedy brought back memories of the crash of a Valley AirCare helicopter that killed three co-workers 10 years ago, Maldonado said.
“Some of us have been through this before when the AirCare crashed in 1998,” Maldonado said. “We know the helicopter can be replaced, but not them. We see the empty pad and we know someday there’ll be another helicopter, but those people won’t be there. They’re saving lives upstairs.”
Valley AirCare is coordinating with HALO Flight of Corpus Christi to provide medical transport services here until it can obtain another helicopter. Following the 1998 crash, it took two months before the company could buy another helicopter.
More updates to be posted at valleymorningstar.com as information is received
