Air ambulance halts service

All over West Texas, victims of an Alpine plane crash were being remembered Monday.

Richard Folger, 78, an owner of Folger Galleries in Midland, was “a very outgoing person who was quick to make friends and put other people around him to quick ease,” said Dr. Joseph G. Rhode, a friend for 28 years.

Folger and his wife Mary Catherine Folger, 73, were among five people killed just after midnight Sunday when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Brewster County.

Rhode said the Folgers were heavily involved with St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Midland and were supporters of numerous projects.

“I’m just devastated by his death, and I’m still not bringing myself to believe it,” Rhode said of Richard Folger.

The crash occurred early Sunday morning as Mary Folger was being transported back to Midland International Airport via air ambulance. She was being taken to a hospital in Odessa after a “pretty serious fall” caused her to dislocate a hip she recently had replaced, her son, Anthony Folger, said.

The couple was spending time at their second home in Alpine, Anthony Folger said.

Meanwhile, the operator of the air ambulance service has voluntarily grounded operations in the wake of the plane crash that killed five people, an employee with the company said.

Air Ambulance Stat, the medical wing of Amarillo-based O’Hara Flying Service, has temporarily halted service after the crash of one of its twin-engine Cessna 421 planes about a mile east of Alpine-Casparis Municipal Airport, a flight medic with the company, who asked that her name be withheld, said Monday.

The woman described Sharon Falkner, 49, of Fort Davis, as a mentor.

“She was like the mother of us all,” the woman said. “She was in EMS longer than any of us have ever been in it.”

The medic said that Falkner never complained or took a sick day during her time with the company.

“She always had a smile on her face,” she said of Falkner. “This job isn’t something you do for money. This job is something you do because you have a calling.”

The medic said she would be ready to return to the skies when the time comes.

“When we go back up, I will be back in the plane,” she said. “It’s my job. I know the risks. I always knew the risks.”

The National Transportation Safety Board had investigators on site and had at least one agent from its transportation disaster assistance office, which provides assistance to those affected by plane crashes, in Alpine. Efforts to reach NTSB investigator Jennifer Rodi were unsuccessful. 

According to Texas Department of Public Safety reports, the plane was attempting to make an emergency landing, when it hit a rut in a muddy field, overturned and burned.

Medic Tracy Chambers, 42, of Alpine died in the crash, along with pilot Ted Caffarel, 59, of Beaumont also died in the crash.

The medic said Chambers was new to the company. She said she could not discuss details of the plane crash.

Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson said a rut in a field wasn’t to blame. Dodson said that shortly after take-off, the plane had begun to land on a small hill northeast of the airport, breaking off its landing gear before going off the other side of the slope. Dodson said it landed on some “grape-fruit-sized rocks” and there were several explosions. 

“When the deputy got there, it was still on fire and upside down,” said Dodson, who said the heat from the explosions kept the deputy from being able to get any closer.

Dodson, who said he lives right next to the airport, said there have been more air transfers from Big Bend Regional Medical Center to Midland and Odessa recently, although he wasn’t sure why.

This is the second fatal air ambulance crash involving transportation of patients between Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine and Odessa-Midland in 2004, four people were killed when Medical Center Hospital’s CareStar, a Bell 407 helicopter, crashed in a field near Pyote in Ward County.

The last fatal air accident at the Alpine airport occurred in 1997 when the single-engine plane of George Merriman III, owner of Skies of Texas Air Charter in Alpine, crashed about a quarter mile from the airport while performing acrobatic maneuvers.

Anthony Folger said he didn’t know anything about the safety of the plane involved in Sunday’s crash.

“It’s obviously very premature to comment on that,” he said. “Right now, our thoughts are only on our parents.”

RECENT AIR AMBULANCE CRASHES
>> Feb. 6, 2010: A Southwest Med Evac helicopter crashes during a training session at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, killing three. Pilot William Montgomery of Avondale, Ariz., and paramedics John Sutter of Las Cruces, N.M. and Anthony Archuleta of El Paso were killed.
>> March 21, 2004: Four people are killed including a woman and her infant son when Medical Center Hospital’s CareStar helicopter crashes in a field near Pyote, 75 miles southwest of Odessa. Ana Lillia Urias and her son Pedro Urias Modesto, paramedic Paul Lujan and helicopter pilot Mickey Price are killed. Nurse Ronald Stephens was critically injured.