Mercy Flight Ends In Tragedy
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday July 25, 2000
A rescue flight taking a sick boy to hospital went horribly wrong early yesterday when a helicopter crashed in darkness and heavy fog, killing all five people on board.
Running low on fuel and trying desperately to find a safe place to land, the helicopter slammed into a field near Marlborough in central Queensland.
Killed were the sick five-year-old, Anthony Sherry, and his mother Susan, pilot Lieutenant Colonel Paul O'Brien, known as Paddy, paramedic Craig Staines and crewman Bill Birch.
The Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service had picked up the boy with breathing problems and his mother, 30, from a remote property north-west of Rockhampton and was to land in the small town of Marlborough.
An ambulance was waiting to take them another 100km south to Rockhampton Hospital. But heavy fog stopped several attempts to put down in the town's schoolground and the helicopter crashed while trying to find a new landing site.
Witnesses said the ambulance officers could see the helicopter's lights and was in contact with the pilot until just before chopper slammed into the ground.
Lt Col O'Brien, a father of two in his late 50s, had uttered on his radio to the waiting ambulance crew: ``Mate, I can't see you," just before impact, witnesses said.
With 35 years aviation experience, including flying during the Vietnam War, he had taken over the rescue service while the regular pilot was overseas.
Queensland Emergency Services Minister Stephen Robertson said the pilot had radioed base that he was running short of fuel soon after taking off from the property.
Local RACQ representative Viv Jenkinson, who was first at the scene about 30 minutes after the helicopter crashed around 2.30am, said the town of about 80 people was awoken by the helicopter's desperate search for a safe landing spot.
``I heard it leave the town ... then there was a big thump and it was obvious it hit the ground," Mr Jenkinson said.
``The whole town got mobile pretty quickly and with the fog being as thick as it was it was very difficult to find where it went down."
Mr Jenkinson said searchlights could penetrate only about 50m into the night.
He described the crash scene, about 100m from a homestead just outside town, as ``shocking".
``I have been on the highway attending road accidents since 1967 so I have seen a fair few horrific things and this probably is one of the worst," Mr Jenkinson said.
``Once I saw the wreckage the result was as I expected to find - I don't think anybody would have suffered at all."
The Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service, a community and government-funded group, started in 1996.
The five-seat Bell long-range helicopter was leased by surf lifesaver Grant Kenny's company.
Mr Kenny visited the crash scene but would not talk to the media.
The bodies were removed late yesterday.
Emergency service personnel at the scene will receive counselling.
Queensland Ambulance Service Commissioner Gerry FitzGerald said the accident was the greatest tragedy that had hit the service.
``It's probably the worst accident, in fact the only accident I can recall of a rescue helicopter in Queensland," he said.
© 2000 Illawarra Mercury
