Investigation finds medications were contributing factor in medical flight crash

CHELSEA, Ala. (AP) — Federal investigators found that a pilot’s medication use may have been a contributing factor in a 2023 medical helicopter crash that killed two in Alabama.

The National Transportation Safety Board released the final report this month on the April 2, 2023, accident. The Airbus EC130 medical helicopter crashed near the community of Chelsea in Shelby County with the three crew aboard. The pilot and a nurse on the flight were killed.

The helicopter was responding to a call when the crash occurred.

The final investigative report said the probable cause was “the pilot’s delayed corrective inputs while maneuvering, which resulted in a loss of control.”

The report found that a contributing factor was the pilot’s use of multiple medications that had a potential sedating effect.

An autopsy found the pilot had cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxer, and the allergy medications cetirizine and diphenhydramine in his system. The medications have the potential to depress the central nervous system, investigators wrote.

The use of the multiple medications “likely worsened this performance deficiency,” investigators wrote in the report.

A witness told investigators the helicopter had been hovering along about three or four feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) beside a road before the crash The helicopter then rapidly ascended, turned and “pitched nose down and impacted the road.”

Chelsea is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of downtown Birmingham.