Search for emergency helicopter called off due to darkness

BRADFORD, Pa. (AP) _ Rescue and recovery crews ran out of daylight Saturday and called off their search for an emergency medical helicopter that went missing while on a five-minute refueling flight Friday night.

he search was called off shortly after 6 p.m. due to darkness and misty conditions near Bradford Regional Airport, where the LifeStar helicopter was last in radio contact with the ground at 11:41 p.m. Friday, said Richard L. Gibbons, chief executive officer of Erie-based Emergycare Inc., which owns the helicopter.

The LifeStar helicopter left Kane Community Hospital, about 75 miles southeast of Erie, with only the pilot on board at 11:36 p.m. Friday. The helicopter was to refuel at Bradford Regional Airport but never landed even though the pilot had radioed to say he was on his final approach.

Emergency crews on the ground and in the air were to resume their search Sunday morning, Gibbons said. Crews were searching Saturday in the area northeast of the airport, where air traffic controllers in Cleveland last had contact with the helicopter.

LifeStar helicopters fly out of St. Vincent Medical Center and Hamot Medical centers in Erie and serve several counties in northwestern Pennsylvania, southwestern New York and northeastern Ohio, Gibbons said.

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