Helicopter

A helicopter was called to the scene of a traffic accident Friday night in Shenandoah Junction, W.Va., a Jefferson County Emergency Services dispatcher said. The dispatcher said the accident was reported at 8:02 p.m. on Ridge Road. Neither the dispatcher nor West Virginia State Police had further details, including the exact location of the accident.

Many of the presenters at Winter Street Elementary School's Career Day on Friday are going to have a tough act to follow. Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will speak, and a Huey helicopter from the agency is expected to land Friday in the Hagerstown West End school's playground area, school system spokesman Richard Wright said Thursday. School officials went door to door with fliers to notify neighbors about the landing, Wright said. The school is in a high-density residential neighborhood between eastbound U.S. 40 (Washington Street)

Authorities used a bloodhound and a helicopter Thursday evening to search the area of Landis Road near Dual Highway for an assailant who attacked a woman earlier that day. Washington County Sheriff's Lt. Mark Knight said police started the search at night, even though the assault occurred in the daytime, because that's when they got the call. No one was found during the search, Knight said. The person authorities were looking for attacked a woman from behind while she was walking Thursday morning near the east end of Hagerstown, according to a press release from the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

The windows of Winter Street Elementary School steamed up as little noses pressed against the glass to watch a U.S. Department of Homeland Security helicopter land on the playground Friday afternoon. The helicopter wasn't there as a matter of national security, or to make an emergency landing, but as part of the Hagerstown school's annual Career Day. Principal Matt Semler said the event is held to expose students to potential career paths, including firefighting, journalism and plumbing.

One person was flown by helicopter to Meritus Medical Center on Friday after a one-vehicle crash on Beaver Creek Road, a Washington County 911 supervisor said. The person's vehicle rolled over. The call was dispatched at 5:41 p.m. No other information was available Friday evening.

A helicopter has been called to a single-vehicle accident that was reported at about 1 p.m. Thursday near Hancock, a Washington County Emergency Services supervisor said. The supervisor said the accident occurred at the No. 1 exit from Interstate 70, which is where U.S. 522 and the highway intersect. One lane of U.S. 522 was been shut down to traffic. Further details were not immediately available.

A Florida man was transported by helicopter to York Hospital in York, Pa., with major injuries following a single-vehicle crash Friday afternoon on Interstate 81 southbound near the Zarger Road bridge, Pennsylvania State Police said. Charles Nehrbass, 86, of Hudson Fla., was traveling south on I-81 in Franklin County, Pa., at about 2 p.m. when the 2000 Ford F250 pickup truck he was driving went off the right shoulder and struck a tree, according to a state police news release. Nehrbass was pulling a trailer at the time of the accident, police said.

By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer WILLIAMSPORT - Maryland State Police "Trooper 3" swooped down on Williamsport High School Saturday afternoon, punctuating a presentation of the dos and don'ts of helicopter rescue missions. Trooper Donnie Lehman, a Maryland State Police medic, delivered a slide show to about 25 people. His talk ranged from how rescue workers on the ground can assist helicopter pilots to how rescuers should decide whether to call for a chopper in the first place.

When a motorist is injured in a traffic accident in Maryland, responding ambulance crews must decide whether the injured will go by ambulance to a nearby hospital or by helicopter to a trauma center. No matter what the situation, it is emergency medical providers on the ground who are responsible for making the split-second decisions of whether to call in a helicopter. A number of factors are taken into account, including the type of injury, where it occurred, whether a person is conscious and the distance from the nearest hospital or trauma center, according to Western Region supervisor Sgt. Joe George.

GREENCASTLE, Pa. -- A man was flown by helicopter to John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center after he was burned Tuesday afternoon in a house fire at 39 Williamson Ave. The identity of the man had not been released and his condition was unknown as of 7 p.m. "He was pulled out by our firefighters," said Tim Mowen, a first lieutenant with the Greencastle Rescue Hose Co. The fire, reported by several callers to 911 at about 4:30 p.m., was...

A medevac helicopter was called to the Maryland Correctional Training Center on Roxbury Road south of Hagerstown following a report of an inmate being stabbed Monday night, according to a Washington County 911 dispatcher. The call came in at 9:06 p.m., the dispatcher said. Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said he had few details, except that the inmate's injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. It is the third stabbing incident reported at state prisons in Washington County since July.

(AP) - A Virginia woman sued Friday over a helicopter crash last month in northeastern Pennsylvania that killed her young son and four others, saying a charter company “negligently and recklessly” allowed a pilot to fly when he was not fully trained. Crystal McKain of Leesburg, Va., filed the wrongful-death lawsuit in Wyoming County over the death of Noah McKain Woodland, 3. She sued Hampton Roads Charter Service over what she called a lack of training for pilot David Jenny Jr., 30. Jenny wasn't certified for instrument-only flights and hadn't gotten a weather briefing before the scheduled flight from Endicott, N.Y., to Lehighton, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

An aviation maintenance and customization company that opened near Hagerstown Regional Airport just over a year ago has received FAA certification  that will allow it to pursue more work and hire more employees, according to the firm's president. The certification is MAG's “ticket on the bus,” and “gets us legitimately moving forward,” said Ed Pears, president of MAG Inc.'s U.S. operations in Philadelphia and north of Hagerstown. MAG is a subsidiary of Mecaer Aviation Group, which is based in Borgomanero in northern Italy.

People walking on the C&O Canal towpath Sunday found a man who was injured in a fall at Maryland Heights, said Capt. Arnold Martin of the Potomac Valley Volunteer Fire Co. The man, whose name was not released, was alert and conscious when emergency personnel arrived at the scene, Martin said. He was flown by helicopter to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Martin said. The incident was reported at 3:52 p.m., a Washington County 911 dispatcher said. It was not known how far the man fell, Martin said.

A helicopter has been called to a single-vehicle accident that was reported at about 1 p.m. Thursday near Hancock, a Washington County Emergency Services supervisor said. The supervisor said the accident occurred at the No. 1 exit from Interstate 70, which is where U.S. 522 and the highway intersect. One lane of U.S. 522 was been shut down to traffic. Further details were not immediately available.

West Virginia University Hospitals-East's City Hospital Foundation recently donated $10,000 to HealthNet VIII to purchase a GlideScope for the Martinsburg-based air ambulance helicopter, according to a news release. The GlideScope is a device used by flight nurses and paramedics to insert breathing tubes in patients who have suffered severe trauma or to treat patients who have a difficult airway and are not breathing on their own. This video scope has a high-resolution digital camera that is connected to a high-resolution LCD monitor, which assists the flight staff in establishing an airway.

Serving aboard U.S. Coast Guard cutters was not a good fit for David Cooper and his queasy stomach. “It wasn't the pitch, it was the roll that did it,” said Cooper, 67, who retired Saturday after a long career flying helicopters for the Coast Guard for nearly 18 years, then 15 more years in Maryland State Police helicopters in Cumberland, Md. One day on a rescue mission, a Coast Guard helicopter flew over his cutter on its way to the rescue....

Crews had to cut an opening in some trees Saturday in a heavily wooded area near The Woods resort so a rescue worker could be lowered from a helicopter to help a woman who had fallen about 40 feet from a cliff, officials said. Two helicopters were sent to the site after it was determined that the woman could not be removed using conventional ground-rescue techniques, according to Maryland State Police. One helicopter with a specially trained aerial rescue worker was sent to the scene in the area of Maverick Trail and a second helicopter from Cumberland, Md., was sent to the scene, state police said.

An 8-year-old girl was taken by helicopter to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Monday morning after she fell off a bicycle at Greenbrier State Park, Mt. Aetna Deputy Fire Chief Ricky Fleming said. Fleming said the girl was taken by Maryland State Police helicopter to the Washington hospital as a precaution. The accident was reported at 9:45 a.m. The helicopter took off at about 10:30 a.m. In addition to state police, the Boonsboro Ambulance & Rescue Service, Mt. Aetna Volunteer Fire Department and Washington County Emergency Services Special Operations responded to the accident.

A 13-year-old boy was flown to Meritus Medical Center Thursday evening after he was injured in a motorcycle accident in a field off Sharpsburg Pike, a Washington County 911 supervisor said. The boy sustained some injuries in the pelvic area but they did not appear to be life-threatening, according to the supervisor. The boy was one of two people on the motorcycle but it was unclear if he was the driver, the supervisor said. The accident, which occurred between Spielman and Lappans roads, was reported at 4:53 p.m. The boy was flown to the hospital near Hagerstown by a Maryland State Police helicopter, the supervisor said.