LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Three crew members were killed early Tuesday when the medical helicopter they were aboard crashed in central Arkansas while they were traveling to pick up a patient.
The Air Evac helicopter was heading to a traffic accident to take an injured person to a hospital when it went down near the Scotland community in Van Buren County, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.
"They were flying under (visual flight rules)," Lunsford said. "It doesn't appear they were talking to any air traffic controllers at the time."
No patients were aboard the Bell 206 aircraft.
The helicopter, built in 1978, was registered to Air Evac EMS Inc., based in West Plains, Mo.
Air Evac spokeswoman Julie Heavrin said the immediate family members of the crew had been notified and that the names would be released later, after friends and other family could be told of the deaths.
Investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were traveling to the crash site, Lunsford said, who is based in the FAA's regional office in Fort Worth, Texas.
Lunsford said there apparently was no distress call.
Scotland is about 80 miles north of Little Rock in central Arkansas.