Pilot no longer at Boston MedFlight after overflying helipad

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A Boston MedFlight helicopter in action.

In June, a Boston MedFlight helicopter pilot overshot a helipad during a patient transport from Martha’s Vineyard, according to Paul Joyal, Boston MedFlight director of marketing and communications. The pilot is no longer employed by Boston MedFlight, Joyal said. 

MedFlight issued the following statement about the incident: “The transport was completed successfully, and there were no injuries to the patient or flight crew. Our investigation determined that fatigue was a factor, and we are now working with a fatigue management consultant and a safety consultant to review our policies and procedures so that this isolated incident does not happen again.”

The name of the pilot, date of the incident, and the hospital where the helipad was located haven’t been released. 

Boston MedFlight provides regular medical transportation of critically ill or critically injured patients from the Vineyard to primarily Boston hospitals or Cape Cod Hospital. The company is a nonprofit brought to life in the 1980s by six of Boston’s teaching hospitals (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, Tufts Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital) at the request of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Those six hospitals, plus Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, govern the nonprofit.