Heliport
18th Jul 2005, 04:26
Extracts from Northwest Indiana Times and Chicago Tribune
http://www.thetimesonline.com/content/articles/2005/07/16/news/top_news/f2b86ad313c103f68625704000119a97.jpg
Valparaiso, Indiana - As more than 100 people watched, workers maneuvered the crashed 4-ton University of Chicago Aeromedical Network helicopter from the top of Porter Valparaiso Hospital Campus' 60-foot-high helipad Friday night.
Using a giant crane, contracted riggers positioned the helicopter right side up on a truck bound for a barn where National Transportation Safety Board inspectors will try to figure out why it crashed.
The crowd applauded as it came to rest.
Earlier in the day, NTSB investigator Timothy Sorensen said helicopter pilot Ed Bain confirmed what witnesses saw Thursday; the helicopter was hovering 6 or 8 feet above the pad when it spun counter-clockwise and the tail rotor struck a stairwell tower.
The helicopter came to rest on the passenger side and three crew members freed themselves. A critical care patient being transported to the University of Chicago Hospitals remained critical, but was not injured further and remained sedated throughout the crash. She will be transferred in the next few days.
The Eurocopter Dauphin 365N helicopter was intact after the crash but had lost both of its rotors and looked like a beached whale in its repose. Foam from the rotors sprayed all over the roof and some hydraulic fluid had leaked, but its gas tank was intact.
NTSB officials gathered pieces of the helicopter from hundreds of yards away.
http://www.thetimesonline.com/content/articles/2005/07/16/news/top_news/f2b86ad313c103f68625704000119a97.jpg
Valparaiso, Indiana - As more than 100 people watched, workers maneuvered the crashed 4-ton University of Chicago Aeromedical Network helicopter from the top of Porter Valparaiso Hospital Campus' 60-foot-high helipad Friday night.
Using a giant crane, contracted riggers positioned the helicopter right side up on a truck bound for a barn where National Transportation Safety Board inspectors will try to figure out why it crashed.
The crowd applauded as it came to rest.
Earlier in the day, NTSB investigator Timothy Sorensen said helicopter pilot Ed Bain confirmed what witnesses saw Thursday; the helicopter was hovering 6 or 8 feet above the pad when it spun counter-clockwise and the tail rotor struck a stairwell tower.
The helicopter came to rest on the passenger side and three crew members freed themselves. A critical care patient being transported to the University of Chicago Hospitals remained critical, but was not injured further and remained sedated throughout the crash. She will be transferred in the next few days.
The Eurocopter Dauphin 365N helicopter was intact after the crash but had lost both of its rotors and looked like a beached whale in its repose. Foam from the rotors sprayed all over the roof and some hydraulic fluid had leaked, but its gas tank was intact.
NTSB officials gathered pieces of the helicopter from hundreds of yards away.