A preliminary investigation was unable to pinpoint a cause of the fatal Med Flight cash that killed three men near La Crosse May 10. The helicopter was destroyed during an in-flight collision with trees and terrain.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the helicopter was equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) tracking equipment that provided departure, arrival and en route position information to the operator’s Operations Control Center. Flight progress was automatically updated every thre minutes. According to the GPS flight-following data, the flight stopped for refueling and no further position updates were received after that.