Goodman, Alabama – The Alabama Emergency Management Agency (EMA) released Sunday the names of the four people who were killed in a medical helicopter crash in southeast Alabama, the Washington Post reported. The victims were pilot Chad Hammond, flight medic Jason Snipes, flight nurse Stacey Cernadas and patient Zach Strickland, according to Alabama EMA spokesman Greg Robinson.
They were taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science in Montgomery.
The four fatal victims were aboard an ambulance helicopter that crashed around 12:17 a.m. in Goodman, after the team responded to a wreck in which a car accident left the patient unconscious and with a broken leg, as told to CNN affiliate WTVY by Coffee County EMA Deputy Director James Brown.
The report by WTVY also states that the prominent Alabama ambulance company Haynes operates the aircraft, which went down about 10 miles west of Enterprise.
Robinson told reporters that the helicopter was found after 7 a.m. on Sunday. He tweeted that the National Transportation Safety Board was conducting an investigation to find out the reason why the helicopter went down in Coffee County.
Efforts to recover the remains were hampered, given that the site of the fatal crash is located in a heavily wooded area near the Goodman community off state Highway 134, plus severe thunderstorms Saturday morning.
Troy Regional Medical Center CEO Teresa Grimes posted on Facebook that the medical center “is saddened” by the loss of the patient and the crew during the transport.
This is the second helicopter crash in southeast Alabama in less than a week, according to WTVY. On Monday, a Ft. Rucker aircraft left three people injured after it went down near the Dothan Airport.
Source: Washington Post