Rotorcraft
MedFlight crash underscores value of helicopter TAWS
On May 10 at 10:40 p.m.

On May 10 at 10:40 p.m. local time, a Eurocopter EC 135T2+ crashed in an area of rapidly rising terrain six minutes after taking off from La Crosse, Wis. Municipal Airport. The three occupants, an instrument- rated pilot and the two-man medical crew, aboard the VFR Part 91 positioning flight were killed. It was the first crash in the 23-year history of the program. The accident resembles several others cited by the NTSB last December when it called for mandatory equipment upgrades on all EMS helicopters.

N135UW (a 2007 model) was operated by Air Methods for UW-MedFlight and was returning to the University of Wisconsin–Madison University Hospital.

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