One person was killed and two others critically injured when a medical helicopter crashed outside Nashville on Saturday, authorities said.
The Vanderbilt LifeFlight helicopter departed from Music City Executive Airport in Gallatin around 1:30 p.m. and crashed in a field south of the city — about 22 miles east of downtown Nashville, the Wilson County Sheriff’s office said in a social media post.
Those aboard the helicopter have not been publicly identified. Medical flights typically carry a pilot, a paramedic and a nurse; no patients were on board when the chopper went down.
“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this tragic incident, and we ask the community to continue keeping all involved in your thoughts and prayers,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The Airbus EC130T2 helicopter, which was manufactured in 2015, took off at 1:33 p.m. but was only in the air for 12 minutes before it went down, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are leading the probe into the wreck.
Authorities have not said where the helicopter was headed before it crashed.
There was another medical helicopter crash in early October in Northern California, when a similar chopper went down on a highway outside Sacramento. Susan Smith, a flight nurse on board, was killed in the wreck, and two more people were injured.
With News Wire Services
