"At this point, we don't know all the facts, we don't know the causal factors, and unless you're sitting in that aircraft next to the guy it's hard to know what he was going through," said Sen. John C. Astle, an Anne Arundel Democrat and retired helicopter pilot who flew medevac missions in the area for 20 years.
"But having said that," Astle said, "I still have concerns about their maintenance program."
The helicopter's pilot, Stephen Bunker, 59, of Waldorf, was a certified flight instructor and a 24-year veteran of the state police aviation unit, police said. He was also licensed to teach other pilots how to fly using only an aircraft's instruments in times of limited visibility.
Also killed were Tfc. Mickey Lippy, a 34-year-old flight paramedic from Westminster, and Tonya Mallard, a 38-year-old emergency medical technician from the Waldorf rescue squad. Lippy is a member of the helicopter's regular crew, and state officials said Mallard, part of an ambulance team that responded to a Waldorf car accident that led to the medevac call, was asked to join the flight to assist Lippy.
"When there is a second patient, or when there is a critically injured patient that requires a second set of hands, state police will frequently take a field provider" aboard the helicopter, said Dr. Robert R. Bass, head of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems.
The fourth victim, Ashley J. Younger, 17, of Waldorf, was in a car with Wells that crashed on Smallwood Drive in Waldorf about 10:45 p.m. Saturday, according to the Charles County sheriff's office. The medevac helicopter left Andrews Air Force Base, where it was stationed, about 11 p.m., state police said, and soon landed nearby.
Citing information that the Federal Aviation Administration provided from air traffic control tapes, Hersman said the helicopter appeared on air traffic control radar at 11:37 p.m., having left with Mallard and the two patients headed for Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly. About 10 minutes later, Bunker radioed controllers and asked to land at Andrews instead.
At 11:55 p.m., the aircraft was about seven miles away. When the pilot was four miles away, he called the tower and "said he was having trouble capturing the glideslope," Hersman said, referring to the vertical guide used to clear obstacles as aircraft come into the airport. He then asked for help with an "airport surveillance radar approach," or turn-by-turn assistance from the air traffic controller, Hersman said.
