AirCare Helicopter Crash Victims Identified

JACKSON, Miss. (VDN) — The victims of an AirCare helicopter crash yesterday in Madison County have been identified.

In a release, UMMC in Jackson identified the three on the helicopter:

“We are heartbroken by the loss of the crew of AirCare 3 during yesterday’s crash in Madison County. The fallen have been identified as Dustin Pope, 35 of Philadelphia, and Jakob Kindt, 37, from Tupelo. The Med-Trans Corporation pilot was Cal Wesolowski, 62, of Starkville.

UMMC will continue to provide support for the families of the fallen, our AirCare and Mississippi Center for Emergency Services teams and the countless others who worked with them in any way we can.”

The AirCare helicopter went down in a wooded area in Madison County near the Natchez Trace Parkway at around 12:30 p.m. on March 10. The flight originated in Jackson and was in the air for about 27 minutes before the crash.

About AirCare

According to UMMC, the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s helicopter flight program began operations in 1996 with a single helicopter based in Jackson. The Jackson-based AirCare 1 helicopter was joined by the Meridian-based AirCare 2 helicopter in spring 2009, the Golden Triangle-based AirCare 3 in spring 2016, and the Greenwood-based AirCare4 in fall 2017.

The additional helicopters allowed AirCare to expand its mission profile by transporting patients to not only UMMC, but other hospitals able to provide levels of care required by the patient’s illness or injury.

Scene response profile has also changed, allowing the transportation of multiple patients from a single location. Since the program’s inception, AirCare teams have safely transported over 18,000 adults, pediatric and neonatal patients over 2 million miles without any FAA-reportable accidents.