April 25, St. Petersburg, Fla. / Eurocopter BK117

At 12:16 EDT, a Eurocopter BK117, operating as an air medical helicopter, collided with a radio transmission tower located on the Weedon Island State Preserve. The pilot and two passengers were killed. The helicopter had dropped off a patient at Bayfront Medical Center and was returning to St. Joseph Hospital in Tampa along a newly established route. The new routing was in response to noise complaints from neighborhoods along the previous route. A witness said the helicopter was flying at about 500 feet agl when it hit a guy wire and crashed.