Medical Helicopter Collided With Cessna 172 On New Year's Eve

A preliminary hearing was held this week in a civil lawsuit filed against a medical helicopter operator stemming from an accident December 31st, 2010, in which two people on board a Cessna 172 were fatally injured.

According to the preliminary report filed by the NTSB in the accident:

"(A)  Eurocopter EC-135-P2 helicopter, N312PH, operated by Petroleum Helicopters Incorporated (PHI) as AirCare 5, and a Cessna 172H, N2876L, collided in midair approximately 1/2 mile northwest of the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (KSHD), Weyers Cave, Virginia. The Cessna airplane departed controlled flight after the right wing separated and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces at ground contact. The helicopter sustained minor damage and landed safely at SHD.

The certificated commercial pilot and passenger on board the airplane were fatally injured. The certificated commercial pilot and two medical flight crewmembers on board the helicopter were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the airplane's local personal flight that originated from SHD, at 1402, and for the helicopters positioning flight that originated from the University of Virginia Medical Center (8VA5), Charlottesville, Virginia, about 1410. A company flight plan was filed for the helicopter positioning flight, and no flight plan was filed for the airplane flight, which were both conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91."

Television station WVIR reports that the families of the two people fatally injured in the accident have filed a wrongful death suit against AirCare5, PHI, and the pilot, Paul Wayne Weve. The suit claims negligence on the part of the pilot for making an improper approach to the airport, overtaking the Cessna from above and behind. The suit also claims that the companies offered "lax management" and "poor oversight" of the operation of the aircraft.

PHI's attorneys argued that the lawsuit does not merit a wrongful death trial. A judge in Augusta County, VA will rule on that issue in the next several weeks.

The NTSB has not yet determined the probable cause of the accident, which will not be admissible as evidence in court.

FMI: www.courts.state.va.us/courts/gd/augusta/home.html