By The River

Word comes of a tragic Maryland State Police medevac helicopter crash in suburban Washington, D.C. The copter crashed near Capitol Heights, inside the Beltway, while carrying two traffic accident victims to Prince Georges Hospital. The two pilots, a Charles County medical technician, and one of the patients were killed. Miraculously, the crashed occurred in a forest, and no one on the ground was injured or killed.

Accidents like this are why I keep pushing for a ban on medevac helicopter overflights of my Shipoke neighborhood along the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, Pa. Shipoke is on the most convenient approach path, but NOT the only approach path, to Pinnacle Hospital's rooftop helipad a few blocks to the north. The STAT-Medevac helicopters and others who bring patients (never highway accident victims) to Pinnacle must be required to approach the hospital over the river.

I'd like to stress again that unless Pinnacle lied on its original application to the FAA for the helicopter service, which occurred with no notice to my neighborhood, these aren't traffic accident victims coming in. They are mainly coming to Pinnacle from small rural hospitals around the state for specialized medical care, includinging poison victims. There is no reason the helicopters couldn't land at Capital City Airport and be met by ambulances.

Whenever I write on this subject, I get angry comments from people I suspect are Pinnacle or STAT-Medevac employees telling me that they hope I or my family are left on the highway by a medevac helicopter if we're involved in an accident (see above), or that I am selfish for complaining about helicopter noise (do you see a noise complaint anywhere in this post?), or how I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND that the helicopters have to fly over Shipoke (they don't). The helicopters are a profit and prestige issue for Pinnacle, so I don't expect the overflights will cease unless enough of us complain to the FAA and maybe not even then.