Air Ambulance Crash of 2019: No Obvious Cause Found by NTSB
The air ambulance flight that crashed in southeast Alaska in 2019 had made the headlines, and the search was carried out for weeks and then finally finding the wreckage deep in the ocean about 500 to 600 feet below. The investigation into the crash was immediately taken over by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It has now come out with its report. The air ambulance crash had occurred 22 miles to the west of Kake. The medical flight was on its way to carry a patient from Kake that unfortunate day. The date was January 19, 2019. What seemed like a routine flight had crashed, killing all three people onboard to include Patrick Coyle, the pilot who was 63 years old along with Margaret Langton who was a 43-year-old paramedic as well as Stacie Morse who was a 30-year-old nurse.
The Search for the Air Ambulance was Unprecedented
A very thorough search was conducted to find any possible survivors or at least the wreckage. The search had spanned several weeks wherein no stone was left unturned. Investigations have revealed that the air ambulance had lost altitude rapidly, plummeting over 2,500 feet in just 14 seconds. Considering this fact, it was unlikely that any of the occupants had survived the crash.
The Findings Leave a Few Questions Unanswered
The seats recovered from the mangled air ambulance were quite a mystery. The passenger and the pilot row seats were unbuckled. The question as to why they had to do that well before the landing of the air ambulance remains unanswered. The cockpit recording device, which was recovered, too failed to give an account of what had transpired in the final moments of the crash. Unfortunately, the device had stopped working a couple of years ago. The nurse, Stacie, was 27 years old at the time of the air ambulance crash.
