NTSB continues investigation

National Transportation Safety Board officials were putting wreckage of a twin engine Cessna 421 air ambulance plane on a trailer Tuesday as part of their investigation into the plane’s early Sunday crash, which killed five people in Alpine.

While the plane was being removed from the crash site, about a mile east of Alpine-Casparis Municipal Airport, work still remained in the area, NTSB investigator-in-charge Jennifer Rodi said. Investigators were still conducting autopsies, toxicology reports and interviews with everyone who works for the company that operated the plane.

“There are quite a few avenues that we have to pursue,” Rodi said.

The plane left a three-quarter mile long “ground scar” during its impact, Rodi said. The impact damage means the NTSB must bring the plane’s engines to a lab setting for final investigation.

All witnesses the NTSB has interviewed so far say they saw the plane traveling from west to east, followed by an impact with the terrain, then a ball of fire, Rodi said.

While the plane’s operator, Amarillo-based Air Ambulance Stat, a division of O’Hara Flying Services, had the same model plane crash in Alpine last year, Rodi said accidents with the Cessna 421 are for the most part unique, with no common cause that would lead investigators to believe they are unsafe.

“I wouldn’t say that a Cessna 421 accident is common by any type,” she said.

No one was injured in the 2009 crash.

Still, Rodi said the NTSB would take the company’s safety record and that of air ambulance service in general into consideration during the investigation.

A 2006 NTSB investigation recommended several ways to improve safety on medical transport flights to the Federal Aviation Administration, including training all involved employees on flight risks, requiring emergency medical operators to use formalized dispatch and flight following procedures and requiring flight operators to install terrain awareness and warning systems on their aircraft.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Rodi said nothing out of the ordinary had come up in the investigation. Weather had not been ruled out as a factor.

“We’re taking a look at the weather,” she said. “But we haven’t determined whether it played a role in the accident or not.”

The crash killed patient Mary Catherine Folger, 73, and her husband, Richard Folger, 78, both of Midland. Mary Folger was being transported from Alpine, where they owned a vacation home, to Midland International Airport after dislocating a surgically replaced hip. Also killed were medics Sharon Falkner, 49, of Fort Davis, and Tracy Chambers, 42, of Alpine and pilot Ted Caffarel, 59, of Beaumont.

Rodi expects the investigation to take between eight and 10 months, at which time a factual report will be released. After review for another three months, a probable cause statement will be released.