The National Transportation Safety Board has completed its initial visit at the site of the medical helicopter crash Monday that claimed three lives with plans to issue a preliminary report in 30 days.

But the final report will take one to two years, said NTSB member Todd Inman at a news conference Tuesday.

“We want to not just find out what happened but why it happened and to recommend changes to prevent things like that from happening in the future,” Inman said.

Inman said AirCare 3 departed from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where it had dropped off a patient, at 12:28 p.m. Monday and was operating at 2,500 feet.

“At some point during the flight, AirCare 3 ceased communicating with Air Traffic Control but made communication with base operations,” Inman said.

The pilot said they were having a flight control problem and were going to attempt a landing in a clearing. The helicopter, which Inman identified as a Eurocopter, never made it. Investigators found “tree scratch marks consistent with rotor strikes.”

At 12:40, a resident reported through 911 seeing a helicopter crash. There was an initial fire plume followed by an explosion, Inman said.

Because of the remote location, it took firefighters two to three hours to extinguish the blaze, he said.

Investigators had to wade through 6-8 inches of water to reach the helicopter, which had “extensive thermal damage,” Inman said.

Two UMMC employees and the pilot died in the crash: Dustin Pope, a flight nurse and the base supervisor for AirCare in Columbus; Jakob Kindt, a critical care paramedic from Tupel; and Cal Wesolowski of Starkville, a pilot with Med-Trans, which leases helicopters to UMMC.

Columbus-based AirCare 3 was, one of four helicopters UMMC leased from Med-Trans. AirCare has been temporarily grounded. UMMC said it is working with health care and medical transportation services around the state to fill the gap.

Mitch Gallow, a senior aerospace engineer with NTSB Central Region in Denver, is leading the investigation. 

“We’ve pulled records regarding the crew and the aircraft,” he said.

He said removing the wreckage may be dependent on a weather system moving into the state Friday, expecting to bring in heavy rain.

“It’ll take as long as it takes,” Inman said.

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