PILOT: COPTER HIT FOG BANK PRIOR TO CRASH

The LifeBeat pilot at the stick when the copter crashed Wednesday morning in Union County, Ill., said Thursday that he "ran out of altitude" and hit the ground after flying into a fog bank.

Bob Campbell, 41, of Cape Girardeau was attempting to return to the helipad at Southeast Missouri Hospital when the copter crashed, injuring the three-member flight crew. The team was responding to a traffic accident near Cobden, Ill., when bad weather forced it to abort the mission just after 4 a.m.

"We probably hit the ground at 120 mph," he said. "That's like two cars going 60 mph hitting head-on."

Campbell should know. He has been piloting LifeBeat to head-on collisions and other medical emergencies since 1988. Before joining the LifeBeat team, he flew seven years for the military and off-shore oil companies.

He said he has never experienced anything like Wednesday's crash.

"I've had to set down a few times because of mechanical problems," he said, "but nothing like this."

Campbell and the other two crew members, paramedic, Bobby Helmers, 29, of Chester, Ill., and flight nurse Paula Crossman, 46, of Troy, Ill., were injured in the crash.

Crossman was treated for bumps and bruises and released from the emergency room. Campbell and Helmers received fractured lumbars in the crash and both were admitted to the hospital. Helmers was released Thursday and Campbell might be released today.

A spokeswoman for the FAA, Tanya Wagner, said inspectors from the Springfield, Ill., district office had forwarded the investigation to the National Transportation Safety Board. She said standard procedure calls for the NTSB to make the final ruling as to the cause of the crash.

"We just do the leg work for the NTSB," she said. "We now assist them in whatever way we can."

Wagner said the NTSB might not rule on the crash for three months. She said no other comment or action was expected from the FAA or the NTSB until the report was completed.

Meanwhile, the flight crew was getting familiar with the replacement helicopter that landed at Southeast Missouri Hospital Thursday morning. The crew was taking calls for service by noon Thursday.

Chief Flight Nurse Rodger Huffman said officials will be discussing a permanent replacement helicopter in the next few weeks. Although the crew felt an attachment to the Bell 206 helicopter they called LifeBeat, he said their spirits remain high.

Losing the copter was like losing a pet, said Denise Dodd, a LifeBeat dispatcher since the service began in 1987. When she drove down Perryville Road to work, she said, she missed seeing LifeBeat sitting on the helipad.

"When I came to work today, I said, Whose helicopter is on OUR pad?" she said. "I realized it was the replacement. We're going to miss it."

Dodd and other members of the LifeBeat team were given pieces of the copter to take home Wednesday.

LifeBeat had flown about 7,000 hours and transported about 4,500 patients in its eight years of service. Besides the three crew members surviving the crash, Huffman said, the only good thing about the mishap was that the hospital will be able to upgrade the equipment on the next aircraft, providing even better service to patients.

"We want to come back better than before," he said. "I still believe that this is the safest service in the state."

Huffman said he has polled the staff -- excluding the injured crew members -- and no one has any qualms about continuing to fly.

Campbell, who went up to the helipad Thursday afternoon to see the replacement helicopter, said he also wouldn't hesitate to climb aboard.

"I'd get in it right now if they'd let me," he said. "I can't wait to get back to it."