Helicopter

OLDTOWN, Md. (AP) -- Maryland State police say a Pennsylvania man escaped serious injury when the plane he was piloting crashed in Green Ridge State Forest. Police say 75-year-old pilot Donald Myers of Needmore, Pa., suffered a small cut on the hand after the engine of the 2009 Kitfox fixed wing aircraft stopped running Sunday morning in the Oldtown area of Allegany County. The plane was wedged between two trees several feet off the ground, but police say Myers freed himself and walked to a road, where he was picked up by a passer-by.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- A helicopter that crashed last week while returning from Hagerstown to Frederick, Md., killing four people, "struck and broke an unmarked, steel guy-wire" about 70 feet off the ground, according to a preliminary report released Friday. The report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said an employee of the helicopter company who lives near Frederick Municipal Airport told the pilot the weather was "miserable" and twice offered to drive to Hagerstown to pick up the group.

Tractor-trailer accident closes part of I-81 Actor remembers Hagerstown experience with fondness Deadly helicopter flight was delayed by weather No decision yet on charges in Pa. death Beer and wine tasting festival goes over smoothly

View the slideshow BOONSBORO -- The pilot of a helicopter that crashed Thursday night on Interstate 70 at South Mountain, killing all four people aboard in a fiery crash, had delayed the flight for two hours because of bad weather, a transportation safety official said Friday. The helicopter crashed on the interstate east of Hagerstown shortly after taking off for the 25-mile flight from Hagerstown Regional Airport to Frederick, Md. Those killed in the crash were tentatively identified by Maryland State Police as Jeffrey D. Nordaas, 24, of Columbia, Md.; Kim R. Felix, 48, and Niall R.Y. Booth, 43, both of New Market, Md., and George H. Tutor Jr., 39, of Westminster, Md. Neither the National Transportation Safety Board nor Maryland State Police on Friday would identify the pilot of the helicopter, but Nordaas was the only licensed commercial pilot aboard, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, and the agency's registry records matched information the NTSB provided at a news conference.

Could it really be that the era of "over-parenting" is, well, over? Probably my favorite description of the trend comes from Patricia Dalton, a clinical psychologist in Washington. In 2002, she wrote in The Washington Post about what she called "uber-parents. " "They decorate their children's rooms in stimulating colors, buy educational toys, forgo playpens and give baby massages ... they let their kids interrupt them and drop everything to take advantage of every teaching moment.

A two-vehicle accident at the entrance to the Mason Dixon Dragway on Monday afternoon sent a Needmore, Pa., man to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Maryland State Police said. At approximately 2:45 p.m., police responded to a report of a collision with injuries on U.S. 40. A preliminary investigation revealed that a Chevrolet Cavalier driven by a Needmore man failed to yield to oncoming traffic while attempting to make a left-hand turn from the dragway onto westbound U.S. 40. As a result, the door on the driver's side of the Chevrolet Cavalier was struck by a Ford Explorer traveling eastbound on U.S. 40. Police said the operator of the Chevrolet Cavalier was flown from the scene by medevac helicopter with life-threatening injuries.

Alexis Goodreau paints 9-year-old Benjamin Smith's hand Saturday at the Waynesboro YMCA's Healthy Kids Day. The event featured crafts, safety-related information, a climbing wall, fire engines, a STAT Medevac helicopter and dance demonstrations. The Chambersburg (Pa.) Memorial YMCA will host its Healthy Kids Day festivities today from 1 to 5 p.m.

ANNAPOLIS -- Several Washington County Hospital patients have been transferred to other hospitals by helicopter thinking it was a free service provided by Maryland State Police, only to later get a bill for $8,000 or $9,000, Del. John P. Donoghue said. That is the type of sticker shock Donoghue says patients will receive if state lawmakers are successful in their push to privatize the state's medevac services. Bills sponsored by state Sens. John Astle, D-Anne Arundel, and E.J. Pipkin, R-Caroline/Cecil/Kent/Queen Anne's, would separate Maryland's police helicopter fleet into separate medical and law enforcement operations and allow Gov. Martin O'Malley to consider bids from private companies to provide medevac services.