Cause unknown in fatal Hospital Wing crash

Two medical crew and the pilot of a Hospital Wing helicopter lost their lives in a crash at around 06:20 hrs on 22 October in Tennessee, US. The team were on their way to pick up a boy suffering from renal failure from a hospital in Bolivar for onward transport to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. The child was instead transported by ground ambulance.

The crew members were named as Hospital Wing pilot Charlie Smith, Le Bonheur Pedi-Flite nurse Carrie Barlow and respiratory therapist Denise Adams.

Pedi-Flite is the paediatric and neonatal critical care transport team of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. The Hospital’s CEO Meri Armour said: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our Le Bonheur family members. Lots of people count on us to go out and rescue children wherever they are. Pedi-Flite is like the cavalry, going out into the community and surrounding areas. Our families often tell me that once the Pedi-Flite team shows up, they know they’re going to be taken care of.”

In a statement, the hospital stated that 43-year-old Barlow began her career at Le Bonheur in 2012. She worked as a nurse in West Tennessee for 13 years. Prior to joining the Le Bonheur team, she served as a neonatal intensive care nurse for Lauderdale Community Hospital in Ripley and Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson. She lived in Halls with her husband, Keith, and was the mother to three children. Adams, also 43, joined Le Bonheur in 2003, moving to the Pedi-Flite team in 2005, and serving as a respiratory therapist for the past eight years. She lived in Arlington with her husband and was the mother to three children. Smith, 47, joined Hospital Wing in 2012. He retired from the aviation unit of the Memphis Police Department in 2012 after more than 25 years of service. He and his wife lived in Eads with their two sons.

Le Bonheur offers the only paediatric transport service in a 130-mile radius and transports more than 2,500 critically ill or injured children each year – 400 of them by helicopter, according to Jay Pershad, medical director of Pedi-Flite.

No cause has yet been given for the crash.

In March 2010, a Hospital Wing AS350 B3 helicopter crashed in Tennessee, killing the pilot and two medical crew members onboard. Following an investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the probable cause of that crash was the pilot’s decision to attempt a flight into adverse weather conditions.