No clear cause of medical helicopter crash that killed 4

The four victims were the pilot, a nurse, a paramedic and a patient, the station said, citing local emergency officials.

Kern County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department crews were unable to access the crash site for almost 90 minutes due to “immense fog and darkness”, Daniel Lynch, Central California EMS Director, told NBC News. Conditions in Kern County are damp with thick fog.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The name of the patient has not been released. Kern County sheriff’s deputies secured a road leading to the site.

Kern County Fire crews found a debris field near Sherwood Avenue and Highway 65 at around 9 p.m.

23ABC News has confirmed that the helicopter was scheduled to go to San Joaquin Community Hospital, according to hospital spokesperson Jimmy Phillips.

He said his team is still gathering information on weather and mechanics and had nothing to say about how they have contributed to the Thursday night crash.

The helicopter was headed from Porterville Municipal Airport to San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield for a critical care patient transfer when it crashed.

Air Ambulance’s Skylife Air Medical service operates three helicopters out of the Fresno and Visalia airports.

Valeri said at a press conference: ‘We have a gather of our- we call it the SkyLife family.

“They were very well liked, these individuals”, Lynch said.

Skylife Air Medical began operations in June 1991 as a partnership between Rogers Helicopters and American Ambulance and transports around 1,000 patients per year.

Another recommendation urged use of terrain awareness and warning systems and night-vision imaging systems.

The helicopter went down amid rolling hills of cattle-grazing country east of the town of McFarland, 135 miles northwest of Los Angeles.