HARTFORD — An ARCH Air Medical Services Inc. helicopter ambulance crashed in Hartford on Thursday night, injuring three people.
Shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday night, the helicopter, on a training mission with first responders, crashed back down onto a vacant lot after one of the rotors appears to have struck a tree. The damaged tree, about 50 feet in the air, could be seen with a broken branch and bare wood.After falling about 50 feet, the chopper landed hard and caught fire.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire, and three people were injured on board the helicopter. Their condition was unknown Friday morning, but another helicopter was dispatched to the scene to fly one patient to a St. Louis trauma center. The other two injured people were transported to a hospital by ambulance.
A statement Thursday night from AirMethods, the Colorado-based company that operates ARCH Air Medical services, said, “This evening, at approximately 9 p.m. Central Time, the ARCH 1 crew from Granite City, IL, was involved in an incident as they were departing from a local fire station. All three crew members on board have been transported to local hospitals for evaluation. We continue to support our teammates and are working with the authorities in support of the investigation.”
A crowd of about 50 people gathered in the small town and watched the scene on North Delmar Avenue in Hartford.
The helicopter crashed on a vacant lot across from the Hartford Fire Department. Firefighters from Hartford, South Roxana, Roxana, and Wood River were called to the crash site.
Wood River firefighters brought a foam truck to the scene and eventually doused the chopper in a white coating of chemical foam. Firefighters were on scene for hours Thursday night, and the crash will likely be investigated by the NTSB. No further details were available Friday morning.
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/airmethods-responds-hartford-helicopter-crash-20294198.php
