The air traffic controller in radio contact with a doomed Maryland medevac helicopter that crashed, killing four last month, lacked the training to assist the pilot in an instrument landing, a preliminary report released Thursday found.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s analysis pointed to a failed navigation system in the helicopter and the inability of ground personnel to guide them through a landing without aircraft instruments as contributing factors in the crash.
The report also noted that the only rescue worker to respond to the crash in Prince George’s County had to drive more than 25 miles to get to the scene.
The helicopter, which crashed 2 miles from Andrews Air Force Base after being diverted from the Prince George’s County Hospital because of low cloud cover, was found in the woods 1 1/2 hours after the pilot’s last contact with air traffic control, the National Transportation Safety Board report said.
Unlike early reports of the Sept. 27 crash that indicated poor weather had played a role, the report said the weather over Andrews was mostly clear.
The helicopter rescue crew airlifted two patients from a car accident in Waldorf and was headed to the Prince George’s County Hospital when it became clear to the pilot, Stephen Bunker, that landing there would be dangerous, tapes of the transmissions released Thursday said.
As Bunker approached Andrews, where the cloud ceiling was an acceptable 1,800 feet and visibility was 10 miles, he told the control tower that his “glide slope,” a radar used for landing, was not working, the NTSB report said. The tower said the radar was working fine on their end.
“Obviously there was an issue with the aircraft,” said Sen. John Astle, a former helicopter pilot himself. “That leaves a whole question of maintenance on the table.”
Before the tragedy, Astle and state Sen. E.J. Pipkin had requested the Federal Aviation Administration investigate safety and maintenance issues in the state police’s aviation unit. Both wrote another letter two weeks ago to the Maryland State Police and the Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical Services System, questioning why three of the fleet’s helicopters remain grounded.
“We’re still waiting for a response,” Astle said.
When pilot Bunker requested the backup system, Airport Surveillance Radar, the controller responded that she was “not qualified to provide the service,” the report said. After that “there were no further transmissions received” from the pilot.
Moments later, the helicopter disappeared from the radar, but it took another 15 minutes for state dispatchers and Andrews personnel to recognize the helicopter had crashed, and even then the possibility had to be raised by a state police sergeant in Norwood, the report said.
It was also only that sergeant and an emergency medical worker who went looking for and found the crash, the report said.
