Air Ambulance Crash Exposes Vulnerability In Neighbor Island Health Care 2 As a statewide emergency order ends, the governor and other doctors say more services are needed to reduce the dependency on medical air transport.
The deadly crash of a medical air transport plane off Maui last month has focused attention on the adequacy of Hawaii’s health care system on the remote neighbor islands.
The Dec. 15 accident, involving a Hawaii Life Flight air ambulance, killed pilot Brian Treptow, flight nurse Courtney Parry and flight paramedic Gabriel Camacho as they headed from Maui to the Big Island on a night mission to transport a patient to Honolulu, according to Hawaii Life Flight.
The crash prompted Gov. Josh Green to issue an emergency proclamation the next day allowing the state to use the Army National Guard, Coast Guard and mainland staffing to keep air ambulance service functional in Hawaii in the wake of the crash.
