WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A medical evacuation helicopter crashed in suburban Washington late Saturday night, leaving four people dead, a Prince George's County Fire Department spokesman said.
The Maryland State Police helicopter was en route to Prince George's Hospital with two patients who had been critically injured in a Charles County, Maryland, car crash. The copter went down in the Ritchie, Maryland, area, spokesman Mark Brady said. The pilot, a paramedic, an emergency medical services technician and one of the patients were killed, he said. The other patient -- a teenage girl -- survived the crash and is being treated at a hospital, he said. The pilot radioed that he was diverting back to his base at Andrews Air Force Base to avoid bad weather just before midnight, Brady said. Two ambulances were sent to Andrews to meet the helicopter and carry the patients to the trauma center. But radio contact with the helicopter was lost, and the wreckage was found after a two-hour search, Brady said. The helicopter crashed on a park trail in the Capitol Heights/Ritchie communities, just east of the District of Columbia, he said. -- Stéphan Gascon
