SANTA ROSA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- An emergency dispatcher has been fired and a supervisor may face a similar fate for allowing the fatal crash of a helicopter ambulance to go undetected for five hours.
Walton County dispatcher Richard Grippo was dismissed several days after the Oct. 20 crash that killed three crew members, according to an internal review, the Northwest Florida Daily News of Fort Walton Beach reported Friday. Grippo failed to verify that the helicopter had returned to its base here after the crew radioed it was aborting a night mission due to bad weather.
The report stated Grippo's supervisor, Angelic Austin, faces possible demotion, termination or resignation for failing to complete her duties as supervisor.
No one realized the helicopter was missing until a relief crew reported for duty. The wreckage and bodies then were found in Choctawhatchee Bay.
The delay did not contribute to the deaths of pilot Tom Palcic of Fort Walton Beach, flight nurse Jack Chase of Santa Rosa Beach and paramedic Robert Heighton of Gulf Breeze because they were killed instantly, the District Medical Examiner's Office determined.
Grippo, who had been on the job only four months, declined comment but told a review board he felt confident to handle his first unsupervised dispatch of the helicopter although he never read the appropriate protocols, the report indicated.
He told the board he received little training but picked up on how to dispatch the helicopter by observing other dispatchers and asking questions.
Grippo cleared the call from his computer checklist and stopped tracking the flight nine minutes after the crew radioed it was returning to the helicopter's base in this Florida Panhandle community, according to the report.
The report indicated that Austin, who was in the restroom while Grippo cleared the call, believed Grippo was fully trained but failed to verify his capabilities. A trainer told the review board she had gone over the procedures with Grippo and told him to read the protocols.
No action will be taken against Austin until she returns from family medical leave, probably in mid-January, said Ed Baltzley, the county's emergency response director.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release an investigative report in the spring, but preliminary findings are that poor weather and bad visibility contributed to the crash.
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