Browning mourns Hot Shot killed in helicopter collision

[Ptah]

Browning mourns Hot Shot killed in helicopter collision

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080701/NEWS01/807010301&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

Browning residents are mourning the death of one of their beloved warriors, 26-year-old Michael MacDonald, a Hot Shot firefighter who died Sunday when two helicopters collided near Flagstaff, Ariz.


MacDonald was a member of the 20-person elite Chief Mountain Hot Shot crew that was working on the
Walla Valley Fire on the northern rim of Grand Canyon National Park, according to Tyson Runningwolf,
fire management officer for the Blackfeet Tribe.

Runningwolf said MacDonald was aboard the helicopter as a patient, but not because of any firefighting
injuries sustained. Rather, MacDonald was bitten by an insect and was being treated at a hospital on the
south rim of the Grand Canyon when he had an allergic reaction to antibiotics. Runningwolf said
MacDonald's condition was serious enough that he was transferred to a hospital in Flagstaff.

It was during flight that the two helicopters, both Bell 407s, crashed into each other approximately a mile
away from the Flagstaff hospital. The crash killed MacDonald, the other patient, both pilots, one medic
and one flight nurse. Another nurse was critically injured.

[Theres-a]

1. What a story

One never knows. How sad for his friends and family.