A pilot and two hospital workers were killed after the medical helicopter they were traveling in crashed in Tennessee on Tuesday. <br /><br />According to local reports, the Hospital Wing helicopter took off in Memphis and was bound for a hospital in Bolivar to pick up a child in renal failure and transport him to Le Bonheur, which takes more than 400 critically ill or injured children by helicopter each year. <br /><br />The craft was about half an hour into the flight when it went down, at around 6:20 a.m.<br /><br />When the helicopter didn't respond during a routine 10-minute check-in, authorities began searching by air and ground. <br /><br />The burning wreckage was found in a wooded area of Somerville, about 45 miles east of Memphis. According to officials who saw the crash site, the helicopter virtually disintegrated on impact. <br /><br />In a news release, the hospital identified those killed as 47-year-old pilot Charles Smith, 43-year-old nurse Carrie Barlow and 43-year-old respiratory therapist Denise Adams.<br /><br />After officials learned about the crash, the boy who was supposed to be flown to Memphis was taken by ambulance to Le Bonheur, CNN reported. <br /><br />According to reports, investigators are trying to determine the cause of the crash.<br /><br />For Hospital Wing, a non-profit air medical transport partnership with Le Bonheur and other Memphis-area hospitals, this is the second helicopter crash in about three years. The previous accident also saw the people on board killed.
