SONES, Pa. -- A helicopter ambulance crashed in a remote, mountainous area of northeastern Pennsylvania, killing the pilot, a flight nurse and two medical aides, authorities said Sunday.
The crash occurred Saturday night in state game lands about 120 miles northwest of Philadelphia and 45 miles west of Scranton, said Carolyn Corbett, a spokeswoman for Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa.
Corbett said the four-member helicopter team had just dropped off a patient at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., about 7:30 p. m. and was returning to its base in Sayre when the aircraft lost radio contact with ground communications.
A signal was picked up from the crash site at 9:34 p.m., Corbett said, but rescue teams were not able to locate the crash site until 2 a. m. Sunday.
All the crew members were declared dead at the scene, where investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the cause of the crash Sunday, Corbett said. Autopsies were ordered.
The four victims were identified as pilot Jack Goodwin, 35, of Sayre; flight nurse Debbie Noll, 32, of Owego, N.Y.; flight paramedic Mark Haussler, 26, also of Sayre; and emergency medical technician Ed Soper, 36, of Leraysville, Pa.
The crew was flying the Guthrie One Air Ambulance, a helicopter service dispatched for medical emergencies in some of the state's most rural areas, and operated by the Guthrie Medical Center complex.
'All of us at Guthrie are deeply saddened by this tragic loss of four outstanding professionals who were so strongly committed to the vital roles they played in bringing health and extending life for others,' said Ralph Meyer, president of Guthrie Health Care Systems, operator of the medical center.
