Air ambulance crash kills three

A twin-engine Piper Navajo air ambulance plane owned by Trans North Aviation crashed on 28 November, killing three of the five people onboard. Among the fatalities was the patient, an 80-year-old man who was being flown to the Chicago area when the aircraft came down in woodland just north of a Lake County Forest Preserve at 22:50 hrs.

The aircraft had passed a safety inspection on the day of the crash, according to Trans North Aviation owner and president Ron Schaberg. He explained that the plane was carrying the patient, his 75-year-old wife, two pilots and a flight paramedic, having picked them up from West Palm Beach, Florida. It made a fuel stop in Jesup, Georgia, before continuing on towards Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling, around five miles from the crash site. The pilot informed air traffic controllers at the airport that the plane was experiencing a fuel problem, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, and shortly afterwards, the aircraft crashed.

The site of the crash was swiftly located, and emergency responders were at the scene soon after the accident. The authorities found a small fire in the aircraft, which was extinguished, and then work began to free the victims. The patient was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The patient’s wife and a member of the flight team were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, while two others were taken to another medical centre and were expected to survive their injuries.

Schaberg said the crash was the first in Trans North Aviation’s 30-year history.