Two lost in air ambulance crash

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Two lost in air ambulance crash

Postby Admin3 » Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:10 pm

Very sad news indeed. Taken from the BBC web page

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4349523.stm


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The search is continuing for a pilot and a paramedic who were on an air ambulance which crashed into the sea off the west coast of Scotland.
Wreckage has been found about five miles off the coast from Campbeltown.

Contact with the aircraft, which was flying from Glasgow to Campbeltown to pick up a sick child, was lost shortly after midnight.

The Islander aircraft, operated by Loganair, was preparing to land at Machrihanish airport when it went down.

Three lifeboats and a Sea King helicopter are at the scene, along with HMS Penzance, a navy minesweeper.

The navy crew were preparing to lower underwater cameras after picking up a sonar signal from the seabed which could be the plane's fuselage.

No distress call

A spokesman for RAF Rescue Centre, Kinloss, confirmed that the twin-engined plane had been on its way to pick up an 11-year-old boy with "severe abdominal pains" who was to be taken to Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow.

It is understood that the boy was later taken to hospital by road.

Brett Cunningham, Coastguard area operations manager, said: "We were alerted through the air traffic control system just after midnight, but the aircraft had not put out a distress call.

Everyone in the service is shocked by this news and our thoughts are with the families of the paramedic and pilot

Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson

"The wreckage includes the undercarriage, lifejackets and various other debris and is spread over quite an area.

"The weather was not a factor and there was no indication of anything in the area that would have played a part."

It is understood there was low cloud at about 400ft at the time the plane disappeared, although wind and rain were light.

Sympathy for families

A spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Everyone in the service is shocked by this news and our thoughts are with the families of the paramedic and pilot who were on board the aircraft, as we all wait for news from the rescue operation."

The aircraft is one of three operated for the Scottish Ambulance Service by Loganair, based in Glasgow, Lerwick and Kirkwall.

Aberdeen-based aviation journalist Jim Ferguson told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that it was hard to say what had happened, but something had gone "horrendously wrong".

He did not think there was a black box on board the aircraft.
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