The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report last week of its investigation into the University of Mississippi Medical Center helicopter crash in early March that killed three crew members.
AirCare 3 — one of four helicopters in UMMC’s critical care transport program — was severely damaged March 10 after crashing in a grass field in Canton, roughly 26 miles south of Jackson.
It was the first crash in the 29 years that AirCare emergency service has been operational, according to UMMC.
The victims were identified as two UMMC employees — Dustin Pope, a 35-year-old base supervisor for AirCare in Columbus and a flight nurse of Philadelphia; Jakob Kindt, a 37-year-old critical care paramedic of Tupelo — and one pilot, Cal Wesolowski, a 62-year-old Med-Trans Corporation pilot of Starkville.
Med-Trans Corporation, a Denton-Texas based company, provides helicopters and pilots to UMMC.
According to the report released on April 4, AirCare 3 completed a patient transport to St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, refueled for a return trip to its home base in Columbus at Golden Triangle Regional Airport and crashed shortly after, killing everyone on board. No patients were reported to have been on board.
The preliminary report did not identify the cause of the crash. National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman previously told reporters the final report could take one-to-two years to be completed.
“We will take as long as it takes to get the right evidence, to find the right information and to come up with the probable cause,” Inman said during a March 11 media briefing.
Flight nurse reported: ‘We’ve got a major problem’ as helicopter descended
According to the report, the helicopter departed from St. Dominic Hospital and flew about 0.25 miles to the south, to the University of Mississippi Medical Center MED-COM heliport where the helicopter was topped off with Jet A fuel.
The helicopter then departed from the UMMC MED-COM heliport and began the flight to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport.
The operator’s safety management system classified the flight as low-risk.
Preliminary information from the Federal Aviation Administration indicates that the helicopter initially communicated with air traffic control at Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport (JAN).
The helicopter before the day of the accident (Source: Med-Trans Corporation).
About 5 minutes before the accident, the pilot reported “clear to the north” and terminated communication with JAN Air Traffic Control.
The report states the pilot was in the front right seat, the flight paramedic was in the front left seat, and the flight nurse was in the rear right seat.
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The helicopter flew over the Ross Barnett Reservoir northeast of Jackson and reached an altitude of 2,500 feet above mean sea level before it began to descend north of the reservoir.
According to the report, about halfway through the descent, the flight nurse transmitted a message to UMMC’s aircraft communications center.
“We’ve got a major problem, we are having an emergency landing in a field right now, ops are not good, controls are giving us a lot of trouble, coming in fast,” the flight nurse said, as written in the report.
No further radio transmissions were recorded from the helicopter.
The helicopter, a Eurocopter EC135 P2+, was inspected two and a half hours before the accident.
The destroyed helicopter at the accident site.
Witness reports hearing ‘boom’ during day of helicopter crash
The helicopter impacted multiple trees south of a flat grass field in the Pearl River State Wildlife Management Area before coming to rest in the field. The accident site was located about 1/4 mile southwest of the Turcotte Fish Hatchery.
The helicopter was destroyed by a post-impact fire that burned for three hours. Fire department units deployed 1,300 feet of hose after the initial fire suppression, which was carried out using tank water. The report states water was then shuttled for the remainder of the firefighting operation.
According to the report, a manager at Turcotte Fish Hatchery who was working about 700 yards from the accident site heard a “boom” or “explosion” while the helicopter was still airborne. He did not hear engine sounds after the boom and did not see smoke or fire coming from the helicopter while it remained airborne.
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The report states it appeared to the manager that the pilot was “having trouble controlling” the helicopter and that the tail was pitching up and down. The manager reportedly estimated the helicopter did not descend straight down but was “coasting” in a 40 to 45 degree angle descent.
“He said the time from the ‘boom’ to helicopter’s impact with the ground spanned no more than about 15 seconds,” the report states.
Wesolowski, the pilot, was hired by Med-Trans in September 2024 and passed a competency checkride in October. Wesolowski accumulated about 10,644 hours as a helicopter pilot, according to the report.
The National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, Med-Trans Corporation and Colorado-based Global Medical Response, the company that owns Med-Trans, traveled to the site of the crash but were unable to functionally test any of the helicopter systems due to the fire damage.
AirCare flights were temporarily grounded after the crash but have now resumed operations.
“Our entire Medical Center family is heartbroken over this,” LouAnn Woodward, UMMC’s vice chancellor for Health Affairs, said during a March 10 press conference. “We also want to express our concern and sadness for the AirCare team. This is the crew that responds to emergencies across all of the state. And to see them today responding to one of their own, it’s something you can’t put into words.”
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Preliminary NTSB report in UMMC helicopter crash in Madison County, MS
