Originally Posted by
AirBear
Meet the crew. The "selfie" was taken a few hours before the crash. One pilot was 67, the other 45. Of course the news got it wrong as usual "thick fog and heavy rain".
The nurse taking the photo loved her job so much that all 3 of her daughters went into medicine, 2 as nurses and 1 as a Doctor.
https://youtu.be/htcowXJD10g
I'm grateful for their service as first responders. I try to avoid speculating on accidents before the report comes out, but it is worth pointing out that aeromedical evacuation is definitely one of the riskier civilian professional aviation specialties. I am sure there are multiple reasons for this, perhaps including the inherently risky nature of frequently flying in marginal conditions and the effect that type of repeated risk might sometimes have on organizational/safety culture (choosing my words very carefully here out of respect).
Reminds me of early in my Coast Guard career back in the early 2000's; I remember one of my helo friends getting out of the service and going civilian as an air ambulance helo pilot. He was dead within a year of getting off active duty. He was still in the reserves at the time and had just been selected for promotion to O-4 but never got to put it on before he and two flight nurses perished in their Bell 206 as a result of CFIT. NTSB stated he busted minimums by a significant margin while trying to find the person they were supposed to pick up. This guy was an incredible pilot who flew everything by the book and did not take risks during the decade that he was a CG SAR aviator.