Medical helicopter down in Shelby Co, Ala

[Bill Harris]

Medical copter down in Shelby Co, Ala, two casualties, one injury.
A Med Copter was extracting a hiker with medical issues from a State Park when it crashed, with a fire.
Sorry, no details yet.

--Bill

[BFSGrad]

N231SH (https://www.aviation-safety.net/wikibase/310049)

[Bill Harris]

Thanks, BFSGrad. That confirms and adds to the al.com report. Parts of Oak Mtn State Park can be rugged and sometimes a hiker can get into cardiac distress.

--Bill

[20driver]

I seriously wonder if med evacs don't kill more people than they save.
I keep an eye on this and very rarely does the reporting provide any information on why the helicopter was flying. Some digging can turn up some information. If there is a traffic accident involved it is almost always noted.
They once flew my neighbor from the local school to the Rutger Medical center. Less that 15 miles by car. They had to send all the students home first which is how I knew about it when my son wandered in. Would have been faster to send him in an ambulance.
Interesting thing is in NJ the State Police run the medevacs so it was not about money.
The other part that was interesting was it seems if you fall more than 6 feet, he did, it is an mandatory trip to the trauma ER.
Update - Looking on line it seems a hiker was having chest pains. He was transported to a local hospital by land. Hard to see why the flight was needed. There is no further info on the hiker so likely he is fine.

[Bill Harris]

20driver, that may be. We don't have a lot of data yet. But the crash site was not at adjacent State Park but in a valley between mountain ridges. The Sheriff's deputies had set up a landing zone on the roadway. I'm not sure why a medevac helicopter was called since the hiking site is maybe 5-6 miles away from a major medical facility by way of a major highway, which should have not been congested on a Sunday afternoon. The hiker was in cardiac distress and evidently had the.means to afford helicopter transport. His distress was critical since he later perished at the hospital.
My town has a good small-town medical center, but we are 30 minutes by highway to a large world-class facility, and it's not uncommon to fly trauma victims there.