Looking back on Kentucky's deadly medical helicopter crashes

With the devastation of Monday’s deadly helicopter crash in Owenton, Kentucky is reminded of two similar incidents over the years.

On the night of June 14, 1999, shockwaves rippled through Breathitt County when a medical helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain, killing the four people aboard.

The medical helicopter had taken off from Julian Carroll Airport when it quickly became enshrouded with fog. The chopper crashed shortly after takeoff.

Pilots Don Green and Ernie Jones, flight nurse Sheila Zellers, and flight paramedic Brian Hardin were all killed in the crash.

At the time, UK Hospital’s helicopter, which was based in Jackson during the day, would return to Lexington each evening.

The crew was heading home for the night when the Sikorsky S-76 went down.

14 years later, another Air Evac crash rocked the state.

A flight crew was heading back to its base in Manchester after a trip to a London hospital.

The chopper lost control and slammed into the parking lot of the Paces Creek Elementary School, not far from the crew’s home base.

Pilot Eddy Sizemore, flight nurse Jesse Jones, and flight paramedic Herman Lee Dobbs were all killed in the tragedy.

Last year, while it wasn’t a medical helicopter, nine soldiers were killed in a helicopter accident in southern Kentucky.

The soldiers were stationed at Fort Campbell when, on March 29, 2023, two Black Hawk helicopters crashed on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

The crash killed nine soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division.