Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Medical Helicopter Crashes On Roof Of New Mexico Hospital

April 10, 2014 By AxoGen, Inc.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused a medical helicopter to crash while taking off from the roof of New Mexico’s only top-level trauma center. Officials said all three people aboard escaped serious injury.

The male pilot was reported in satisfactory condition and the two crew members, a man and a woman, were under observation after the crash at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, authorities said. No further information was available on their conditions.

No patients were aboard the chopper when it went down during takeoff Wednesday.

Federal Aviation Administration investigators were beginning an investigation, agency spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.

Though the cause of the crash wasn’t immediately clear, witnesses said they felt a gust of wind at about 5:45 p.m. and saw the PHI Air Medical helicopter wobble as it started to take off from the helipad atop the six-story building. It came to rest on its side, and the damaged tail section could be seen hanging over the edge of the roof.

“They were taking off and had already dropped off their patient when it happened,” said hospital spokesman Billy Sparks.

Images from TV news helicopters showed the roof around the wrecked chopper soaked as firefighters sprayed the tail section with water, but no flames were visible.

Jonathan Goss told the Albuquerque Journal he was in a dorm room and heard screeching. He looked out the window and saw black smoke pouring from the helicopter.

“In the movies, when a helicopter starts spinning out of control,” said Goss, 20. “It sounded exactly like that.”

Other witnesses said they saw a man rushing across the roof to the helicopter and sprinklers dousing it before firefighters arrived minutes later.

The hospital’s fifth and sixth floors were evacuated as a precaution, Sparks said. Authorities were working to determine if there was any structural damage to the building.

It’s unclear how long the hospital’s helipad will be out of service, but Sparks said other hospitals have volunteered to help take incoming patients if necessary.

University and Albuquerque police closed roads around the hospital Wednesday night as the investigation on the rooftop continued. Inside the hospital’s emergency operations center, officials were preparing for a briefing for first responders.

The hospital temporarily diverted some pediatric patients to other hospitals, but the facility returned to normal operations Wednesday night, officials said.

The crash at the hospital, in a busy area just north of the university, comes just weeks after a news helicopter crashed at an intersection near Seattle’s Space Needle, killing both people on board. That crash prompted Seattle officials to review policies about permitting helipads.

Related Articles Read More >

Logos of Creo Medical and Intuitive
Creo Medical inks collaboration agreement with Intuitive
Lazurite ArthroFree wireless surgical camera system Minnetronix Medical
How Minnetronix Medical helped Lazurite with its wireless surgical camera
Medtronic Hugo robot-assisted surgery system
The road to a robot: Medtronic’s development process for its Hugo RAS system
A portrait of Stryker executive Siddarth Satish
How Stryker includes users for product design in the digital age

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 20, 2022
DeviceTalks Boston Post-Game – Editors’ Top Moments, Insulet’s Eric Benjamin on future of Omnipod 5
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech