Excerpt from WFTV report
Medical Helicopter Breaks Down On Busy Orange County Street
4:25 PM EST March 1, 2004
Orange County's 'Firestar' medical chopper landed to take an injured person from a car accident to the hospital. But then, the helicopter couldn't get off the ground.
The Firestar helicopter landed and loaded an injured man.
"When they were getting ready to full throttle the helicopter to lift off and transport the patient, that's when they heard something funny coming from the engine compartment," explains Ric Rivera, Orange County Fire Rescue.
They decided to abort the take off and take the patient to the hospital by ambulance.
"I was told by the flight team, there was only a four-minute delay from the time unloading from helicopter to load on ambulance and get rolling to hospital," says Rivera.
It took the traffic even longer to get rolling, about an hour before 15 deputies, troopers and paramedics pushed the 6,000-pound aircraft off the roadway.
The mechanic says, once he has the replacement part, he'll fix the chopper in the parking lot and then the pilot can take off.