MADISON COUNTY – University of Mississippi Medical Center have identified the three crew members who died in a helicopter crash Monday near Natchez Trace Parkway in northern Madison County.
Calvin Wesolowski, 62, of Starkville, was the Med-Trans pilot onboard, according to a Tuesday UMMC press release. Dustin Pope, 35, of Philadelphia, and Jakob Kindt, 37, of Tupelo, were also killed in the crash. Pope was a flight nurse and base supervisor for AirCare in Columbus and Kindt was a critical care paramedic.
“To the families and friends of those who perished in this accident, we know it’s a traumatic time for not only them, but for the community and the first responders,” National Transportation Safety board member Todd Inman said in a media briefing held Tuesday that was streamed on Facebook. “Our hearts and thoughts go out to them and everyone affected by this.”
AirCare, a helicopter emergency medical service, responds to medical emergencies around the state. The aircraft involved in the crash, designated as UMMC’s AirCare 3, was based out of the Golden Triangle Regional Airport and had flown to UMMC in Jackson before the crash. No patient was on board at the time of the crash.
The helicopter departed from the hospital in Jackson at 12:28 p.m. to return to Columbus. Inman said shortly into the flight, AirCare 3 ceased communication with air traffic control and made contact with its base operations, indicating the team was having flight control problems and would attempt a landing into an open field.
Inman said a call was received at 12:40 p.m. reporting the helicopter crashed in a rural area near the Ross Barnett Reservoir. First responders arrived within four minutes of the call to find an initial fire plume from the wreckage, which was followed by a second explosion 20 minutes later. The fire took between two and three hours to extinguish, Inman said.
NTSB began its on-site investigation Tuesday by collecting perishable evidence. The wreckage, Inman said, was found in a “muddy, murky” area surrounded by six to eight inches of standing water in a heavily wooded area. Inman said during the site visit, investigators observed tree scratch marks consistent with a rotor strike.
Due to the extensive thermal damage from the fire, Inman said it may take longer to collect some of the evidence, though investigators aim to have the wreckage removed from the area by Thursday.
Inman said NTSB plans to release a preliminary report within the next 30 days, followed by a final report which will be released sometime in the next one to two years.
“The reason why we’re here is not just to find out what happened, but why it happened, and to recommend changes to help prevent things like that from happening in the future,” Inman said. “… We will take as long as it takes to get the right evidence, to find the right information, to come up with the probable cause.”
An investigation into the cause of the accident is underway and will be headed by NTSB Senior Aerospace Engineer Mitch Gallo. Other parties in the investigation include the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Med-Trans along with its parent company, Global Medical Response (GMR), as well as technical representatives from Airbus Helicopters and aerospace company Pratt & Whitney.
Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, expressed her condolences to the families in a Tuesday night press release.
“You never know what a day is going to bring, but today brought a terrible tragedy and loss to the Medical Center family,” Woodward said.
The crash was the first in the 29-year history of the AirCare service, the release said.
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