Helicopter crash kills 3, puts transplant on hold | ajc.com
MIAMI — A helicopter that was on its way to retrieve a heart for transplant crashed in northern Florida, killing all three on board and leaving the transplant patient having to wait for another organ to become available.
A Clay County Sheriff’s deputy walks by smoldering brush on his way to wreckage from a helicopter crash in an area west of Green Cove Springs, Fla. Monday afternoon, Dec. 26, 2011. The helicopter was enroute to Gainesville from Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville to receive a heart for a transplant when it crashed. The three people who were in the helicopter died at the scene. (AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union, Kelly Jordan)
Clay County Sheriff’s officials create a staging area about 150 yards from wreckage from a helicopter crash in an area west of Green Cove Springs, Fla. Monday afternoon, Dec. 26, 2011. The helicopter was enroute to Gainesville from Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville to receive a heart for a transplant when it crashed. The three people who were in the helicopter died at the scene. (AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union, Kelly Jordan)
A Clay County fire official drives through smoldering brush on his way to wreckage from a helicopter crash in an area west of Green Cove Springs, Fla. Monday afternoon, Dec. 26, 2011. The helicopter was enroute to Gainesville from Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville to receive a heart for a transplant when it crashed. The three people who were in the helicopter died at the scene. (AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union, Kelly Jordan)
The helicopter departed from a Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville on Monday around 5:45 a.m. carrying a surgeon and a technician along with the pilot. But the helicopter never arrived at the Gainesville hospital, Shands at University of Florida, about 60 miles to the southwest, said Kathy Barbour, a spokeswoman for Mayo, which is based in Rochester, Minn.
Killed were heart surgeon Dr. Luis Bonilla, procurement technician David Hines and the pilot, whose name wasn’t released.
The heart they were going to pick up could not be used in another transplant because its viability expired, and the patient who had been scheduled to receive it is waiting for a new organ, Mayo Clinic spokesman Layne Smith said.
The helicopter went down about 12 miles northeast of Palatka, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. The town is about 40 miles east of Gainesville and about 45 miles south of Jacksonville.