Bend pilot among 4 killed in medical helicopter crash
Four people are dead, including a pilot from Bend, after a medical helicopter crashed in Kern County, California, officials said.
The SkyLife 4 helicopter went down Thursday night, said emergency rescue spokesman Daniel Lynch.
It was transferring a patient in critical condition from Porterville Airport to the San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield, some 50 miles to the south.
Minutes after takeoff, the Fresno County Communications Center attempted to contact the chopper as part of a routine safety check. But it was unable reach the aircraft, Lynch said.
The communications center contacted control towers in Porterville and Bakersfield and established that the helicopter had not communicated with them either.
Rescuers from Kern County’s fire department and sheriff’s office deployed to the location of the helicopter’s last known GPS signal and found a debris field near the town of McFarland.
The dead included the patient, a pilot, a flight nurse and a flight paramedic. There were no survivors.
Three of the victims were identified as 49-year-old Thomas Hampl, of Bend, the pilot; 42-year-old Marco Lopez, the flight nurse; and 37-year-old Kyle Juarez, who was the paramedic, KERO in Bakersfield, California reported.
Todd Valeri, president of SkyLife and American Ambulance said, “This incident is absolutely tragic and has really hit home to our approximately 600 employees at American Ambulance.”
Hampl leaves behind a wife, Sheli, and two children, the children’s grieving grandparents told NewsChannel 21 on Friday.
Sheli Hampl posted a comment Saturday on KTVZ.COM in which she said the family moved to Bend in 2012 from Maui, Hawaii, where Thomas had been a tour pilot for nearly a decade. He worked for Roger’s Helicopters for the past three years.
“Thank you for everyone’s prayers,” she added.
In another comment, she said, “My husband was incredibly safety-minded and thorough, whose attention to detail was constantly praised by fellow coworkers and pilots. I just got a call from his employer on Maui who told me he was the best they’d ever had. We will miss him incredibly.”
On Saturday, Sheli Hampl also provided a statement to NewsChannel 21:
“As all who knew my husband knows, Thomas was an incredible man, father and husband. He would help anyone in a heartbeat, and professionally he was constantly being told he was one of the most safe, thorough, and skilled pilots his coworkers and employers had ever worked with.
“Our family is heartbroken. We know how much he respected flying but at the end of the day, just wanted to come home to me and our 2 boys. He will be missed and loved by our family forever.”
