Officials released the names this morning of four victims killed on a medical transport helicopter that was carrying an infant girl between hospitals when it crashed overnight, killing all aboard, damaging an AM radio tower, and startling residents of an Aurora apartment complex within sight of the field where the helicopter went down.
The infant was Kirstian Blockinger of Leland, Ill., according to Aurora police. Also killed were the pilot, Dell Waugh, 69, of Carmel, Ind.; copilot William Mann, 31, of Chicago; and paramedic Ronald Battiato, 41, of Peotone, Ill. The crash of the Bell 222 helicopter run by Bolingbrook-based Air Angels Inc. is the third crash for the company in six years, and prompted Childrens Memorial Hospital--the flight's destination--to suspend flights from the company this morning. Air Angels has flown critical-care flights in Illinois, Indiana and surrounding states for over 10 years, according to a company statement. "You could hear the helicopter really, really loud," said Keith Pudlewski, 33, who was reading a novel in a second-story apartment near the crash just before midnight Wednesday. "And the next thing you know, you hear 'boom.'" Officials from the company and area hospitals said everyone aboard died in the crash, including the pilot, a nurse and paramedic, and the 13-month-old girl, who around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday was airlifted to Childrens Memorial from the emergency room at Valley West Community Hospital in Sandwich, Ill. -- Posted By Breaking News to Break News at 10/16/2008 07:31:00 PM
