Close on the heels of an airambulance crash a few days ago, there has been another airambulance tragedy, this time in Arizona. The unfortunate airambulance belonged to Native Air 5, which is a part of Air Methods Corporation. The crash claimed the lives of David Schneider, the 51-year-old pilot and Chad Frary, the 38-year-old flight nurse. Derek Boehm, the 38-year-old flight paramedic, however, miraculously survived the fatal crash. The airambulance was on its way to Globe after having taken off from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The crash occurred on December 15th, a particularly cold and moonless night.
The Airambulance Crash Site
Rescuers found Derek Boehm severely injured and in pain. He was reported to be partly covered in snow and drenched in chopper fuel that had oozed out of the crash. The rescuers reported that the survivor was also in a lot of mental agony having lost his colleagues in the unfortunate airambulance mishap.
It was reported that one of the crew members, apart from Derek, was alive after the crash and Derek had tried to rescue the crew member, but to no avail. The area of crash was approximately 20 miles from Apache Junction to the east. The chopper had crashed into the Superstition Mountains, which was covered in snow. The temperatures were below 20 at the time. The wreckage was found about 2-1/2 hours after the incident. The survivor was rescued at around 10 p.m. and the crash had occurred at approximately 6 p.m.
Finding the Survivor of Airambulance Crash
From the look of the airambulance crash site, it was initially felt that there would be no survivors. However, the rescuers who had their night goggles on, soon found a flash light being pointed at them. Although initially they felt it was a false signal, they soon found out that it was being waved at them and immediately descended down to rescue the sole survivor. The bodies of the deceased were evacuated the following morning.
