A pilot and two hospital workers were killed after the medical helicopter they were traveling in crashed in Tennessee on Tuesday.
According to local reports, the Hospital Wing helicopter took off in Memphis and was bound for a hospital in Bolivar to pick up a child in renal failure and transport him to Le Bonheur, which takes more than 400 critically ill or injured children by helicopter each year.
The craft was about half an hour into the flight when it went down, at around 6:20 a.m.
When the helicopter didn't respond during a routine 10-minute check-in, authorities began searching by air and ground.
The burning wreckage was found in a wooded area of Somerville, about 45 miles east of Memphis. According to officials who saw the crash site, the helicopter virtually disintegrated on impact.
In a news release, the hospital identified those killed as 47-year-old pilot Charles Smith, 43-year-old nurse Carrie Barlow and 43-year-old respiratory therapist Denise Adams.
After officials learned about the crash, the boy who was supposed to be flown to Memphis was taken by ambulance to Le Bonheur, CNN reported.
According to reports, investigators are trying to determine the cause of the crash.
For Hospital Wing, a non-profit air medical transport partnership with Le Bonheur and other Memphis-area hospitals, this is the second helicopter crash in about three years. The previous accident also saw the people on board killed.
