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Another Angel Flight Crashes; 3 Are Killed

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The Associated Press

Published: August 13, 2008

EASTON, Mass. - A small plane carrying a cancer patient to Boston went into a nosedive and crashed Tuesday in a grocery store parking lot, killing all three people on board, authorities said. It was the third fatal crash in as many months for a network of charities that ferry patients to medical treatment.

The single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza went down in the parking lot of a Hannaford store in Easton, about 25 miles south of Boston, about 10:15 a.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said.

The plane was being operated by Angel Flight Northeast, the regional branch of a group of volunteer pilots who transport people who need medical treatment but cannot afford the trip.

Amy Camerlin, a spokeswoman for the Northeast organization, said a cancer patient and his wife were being flown to Logan International Airport, Boston, so the man could be treated at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Angel Flight organizations make about 20,000 trips annually, and hadn't had a patient killed on a flight in their 25-year history before June, said Christel Gollnick, CEO of Angel Flight Central, based in Kansas City, Mo.

On June 3, a flight arranged by Angel Flight Central crashed in Iowa City, Iowa, killing a 2-year-old girl who had just been treated for clubfoot and injuring her mother and the pilot. On July 17, a plane flown by an Angel Flight Southeast volunteer crashed shortly after takeoff near Tampa, killing all three on board, including a 49-year-old cancer patient, a 15-year-old boy and pilot Harlan Northcott, 81, of Sun City Center.

"It's been a very, very sad summer," Gollnick said. "The entire Angel Flight world is saddened and surprised and shocked that this is happening all at once."

Gollnick said safety protocols for the groups' planes and roughly 7,000 volunteers have not changed and nothing obvious links the crashes.

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