Tapes show pilot unsure of flight

Bunker was worried about fog on night of fatal helicopter crash

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008

The recording also documents subsequent efforts to locate the helicopter, which had crashed in a District Heights park, killing four of its five passengers.

The call for a helicopter was relayed to Trooper 2 at about 11:02 p.m. Sept. 27, when a dispatcher told Bunker that Charles County emergency crews needed pickup for two teenage girls involved in a Waldorf car accident.

Bunker initially seemed hesitant to fly the girls to Prince George's Hospital Center, saying the fog might prevent them from making it to the hospital. But when he heard a MedStar helicopter was able to complete a mission despite the weather, Bunker made his decision.

"If they can do it, we can do it," he said.

"OK, it's up to you," said the dispatcher.

"Yeah, we oughta be able to do it," Bunker replied.

After the helicopter picked up the crash victims, Ashley Younger and Jordan Wells, Bunker headed it to the Prince George's hospital in Cheverly, but decided to reroute to Andrews Air Force Base.

"P.G. Hospital is completely fogged in. We're unable to land there. We're gonna be returning to Andrews," he said. Bunker also asked that a couple of ambulances meet them at the base.

"Ten minutes 'til we get there," Bunker estimated in the last communication Maryland State Police received from Trooper 2.

According to a preliminary report released Oct. 30 by the National Transportation Safety Board, Bunker was having trouble with the landing at Andrews Air Force Base. He wasn't receiving a "glide slope," or the angle from which he was supposed to approach the runway. When he requested an alternate type of landing, the air traffic controller at the base said she wasn't trained to provide it, the report stated.

After that, Trooper 2 disappeared from the base's radar.

The recordings show helicopter communications called Trooper 2's hangar with no response, and then contacted Prince George's emergency dispatchers to see if the ambulances Bunker had requested were with the helicopter.

"The reason I'm asking is Andrews lost Trooper 2 on their radar. I wanna make sure Trooper 2's safe on the ground," said a man from Syscom, the Maryland State Police helicopter communications system.

The Prince George's emergency dispatcher said they were looking for the helicopter on the base's runway and also at nearby firehouses and open lots.

"I'll keep you informed. I haven't heard anything yet," said the man from Prince George's. "They're out there looking."

"OK, I appreciate it," said Syscom at the end of the tapes.

At about 1:30 a.m. Sept. 28, a search team found Trooper 2 at the crash site. The victims of the accident onboard were paramedic Mickey C. Lippy, 34, of Westminster, Waldorf emergency medical technician Tonya Mallard, 39, of Waldorf, Younger, 17, of Waldorf and Bunker, 59, of Waldorf. The only survivor of the crash was Wells, 18, of Waldorf, who suffered serious injuries and is still being treated at a Baltimore hospital.

The wreck sparked criticism that the Maryland State Police helicopter fleet is overused for medical transport and questions about whether Wells and Younger should have been taken to a hospital by ambulance instead.

According to the dispatch tapes, Wells and Younger were classified as "Category D" patients, meaning they should be driven by ambulance to a trauma center if the travel time is less than 30 minutes, according to Maryland emergency services protocol. If the driving to the trauma center would exceed 30 minutes, emergency providers should consider helicopter transport, the guidelines state.

However, the helicopter dispatcher who contacted Bunker about the flight commented that Waldorf emergency workers dislike transporting their patients by ground, saying they "never want to drive to the hospital."

When Bunker asked where the accident was located, the dispatcher said, "Charles County. Waldorf. Where else? … As soon as I heard Charles County, I knew it was going to be Waldorf. Because those guys never want to drive to the hospital."

Dan Stevens, chief of the Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department, called the comments "very unfair."

He said the dispatcher might have said that because his station handles so many Charles County trauma cases and there is no trauma center within a 30-minute drive.

"I can't recall the last time we were told by a trauma center that we shouldn't have flown that patient, and we have been told many times by the local hospitals that we should have flown the patient," Stevens said.

Dr. Robert Bass, the executive director of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, said he had no evidence to support the dispatcher's remarks.

"As far as we can tell, it wasn't accurate," he said.

Bass said he calculated how often each Maryland county uses helicopter transport and divided these totals by every county's population. He said Charles County's rate of helicopter use was roughly the same as that of St. Mary's and Calvert counties.

"We could find no information to substantiate that comment," he said.

brodgers@somdnews.com