Helicopter Crash Victims Remembered
Last Updated: 7:17 PM Jun 9, 2008
Reporter: Meredith Stancik, KBTX-TV
Link to story: http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/19681244.html#
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Copter lacked night vision
http://www.theeagle.com/local/Copter-lacked-night-vision
By April Avison
Eagle Staff Writer (Bryan, Texas)
A Bryan-based medical helicopter that crashed over the weekend was not equipped with night-vision goggles as recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board, officials said Monday.
However, PHI Air Medical, which operates out of Coulter Airfield, was awaiting on such a shipment, company officials said.
Authorities have not determined what caused the crash in Sam Houston Memorial Forest that killed PHI Air Medical pilot Wayne Kirby of Bryan, nurse Jana Bishop, paramedic Stephanie Waters and the patient they were transporting, David Disman.
The goggles, however, are known to decrease the risk of evening crashes during emergency medical flights, according to research conducted by the transportation safety board and the Federal Aviation Administration. Neither agency required the use of goggles.
Jonathan Collier, a company spokesman, said PHI operates more than 240 helicopters around the world and regularly uses night-vision equipment as it becomes available. He said that the goggles are in high demand throughout the aviation industry and the military.
The son of one of the crash victims said Monday that he's not placing blame and is overwhelmed with gratitude for crew members who lost their own lives trying to save his father.
Jason Disman took his 58-year-old father David Disman to Huntsville Memorial Hospital on Saturday evening. The father, a retired prison guard who had recurring bouts of back pain, was suffering from a ruptured aortic aneurysm, the Disman family learned at the hospital.
A PHI crew was dispatched to Huntsville to transport Disman to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston for surgery after a crew from Houston turned down the request due to low-lying clouds.
"I only met them for a minute, but it was long enough to know they were great people," Jason Disman said of the PHI crew. "They gave up their lives to try to save another life."
Within two minutes of takeoff, the helicopter lost contact with a dispatcher, according to authorities. Reports said the aircraft went down about 10 miles from its starting point, leaving a 1,000-foot trail of debris scattered throughout the 163,000-acre Sam Houston National Forest.
"They took off and we got on the highway, and we were watching [the helicopter] for a little bit," Disman said, explaining that he didn't see the aircraft go down. "When we finally got to [the hospital in] Houston, they got us to all go in a conference room and let us know [it] was missing."
Acts of heroism
Kirby, 64, of Bryan, had worked for PHI for 32 years. He flew helicopters in Africa, transporting items for oil and gas businesses, and in Antarctica, where PHI has a contract with the National Science Foundation, Collier said.
During his more than three decades with the company, Kirby had never been in an accident, company officials said.
Kirby, Bishop and Waters were in the midst of a 24-hour shift when their helicopter went down. The crash occurred about seven hours after the trio responded to transport a toddler who was reportedly drowning in a swimming pool at a Madison County country club.
"This act of heroism is the norm for professionals like these who dedicated their lives to helping others," Collier said.
A woman who answered the phone at Kirby's home in Bryan on Monday declined comment.
Cedar Park resident Waters, 27, was married and had worked for PHI since May 2006. Bishop, of Magnolia, was planning to be married in October and had worked for the company since 2005.
PHI officials were making plans for a memorial service, but as of Monday evening had not finalized a date or time that would work for all the families involved, Collier said.
A woman who answered the phone at PHI in Bryan declined comment.
"We're asking that you respect our EMS family," she said. "We're not making any statements at this time."
Collier said PHI employees were undergoing a critical stress debriefing Monday to "make sure they are physically and mentally fit."
Steve Discher, who operates Coulter Airfield, said the scene Monday at the PHI headquarters was "what you would expect to see at a friend's house when there's been a loss."
"There's probably 120 people out there," he said. "I saw a lot of local firemen and EMT professionals that worked with those folks on a daily basis."
Discher said the staff at the airfield interacts almost daily with the PHI medics and nurses.
"Jana [Bishop] was here from the beginning," he said. "She's well-known and well-liked. It's like any other organization. It's more than just working with people. They were there for 24-hour shifts, so we would see them whenever we came and went. It's almost like losing a family member."
Ongoing investigation
It could take up to 10 months of investigative work to determine what happened in Sunday's crash, National Transportation Safety Board officials said Monday.
Investigators will study fragments from the helicopter, weather reports, a toxicology exam of the pilot and whether darkness was a factor, said NTSB investigator Jennifer Kaiser.
"We were able to locate all the wreckage," Kaiser said Monday evening. "It's on a trailer and we are en route to an aircraft recovery facility in Lancaster. We're going to do a etailed examination to determine how the metal bent and whether there was an overload due to impact or some other anomaly."
The aircraft did not have a flight data recorder or cockpit recording device, as required on most planes, officials said.
Kaiser said there's no question it was dark in the forest when the crash occurred. It took authorities six hours Sunday morning to locate the wreckage, officials said.
"The area the pilot was flying over was kind of like a black hole," Kaiser said Monday. "But whether that contributed, it's too premature to say at this time."
Testing over the next few days will involve looking at the engine and determining at what angle the aircraft may have hit a tree or the ground, Kaiser said, adding that it did not catch fire upon impact.
"Nothing has been ruled out," she said.
The safety board's investigation also will include interviews with maintenance inspectors and PHI officials, Kaiser added.
Mike Slack, an Austin-based attorney who specializes in aviation lawsuits, said Monday that visibility almost always is a primary factor in air ambulance crashes.
"That's going to be very high on their checklist of things to look at," said Slack, who holds degrees in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University. "Helicopters operate near the ground in the vicinity of obstacles. There's trees, antennas and power lines. If the pilot becomes disoriented, a helicopter is much more difficult to maintain control of than an airplane.
"The NTSB has said time and time again that the vast majority of these night crashes are avoidable if they don't fly in fog, ice or snow, or low visibility due to dark nights," he added.
Jason Disman, the son of the patient on board, said Monday that he's at peace with what happened and isn't assigning blame.
"God just called them all home," he said. "How can you question that? He took four great people from the world. I can't find anywhere in my heart where I would want to fault any member of that crew for anything. Our condolences go out to them. They were wonderful people."
David Disman did not have life insurance, and a benefit fund has been set up in his name through the First Presbyterian Church of Huntsville. Funeral services for Disman are pending. Arrangements are being handled by Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home in Huntsville.
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