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Mid-air mishap diverts Mass. rescue team to Turks and Caicos

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Gideon Gil January 15, 2010 10:05 AM

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By Globe Staff

A plane carrying a rescue team from Massachusetts to Haiti had to make an emergency landing last night in the Turks and Caicos after a mid-air mishap in the crowded airspace over Port-au-Prince.

No one was injured and the Disaster Medical Assistance Team is expected to reach Haiti today. The group includes three nurses, a pharmacist, and a social worker from Massachusetts General Hospital.

"All I know is that everybody is safe," said Peggy Slasman, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

Most of the information about the incident comes from National Public Radio, which had reporter Joanne Silberner embedded with the team and described it as a "near miss."

"Last night on approach to the airport there were too many planes coming," Silberner said in a radio report from Providenciales in Turks and Caicos. "We got caught in the backwash of another plane. The engine stalled. The pilot managed to pull us out of it."

The plane then had trouble with cabin pressure, Silberner said, and the aircraft did not have enough fuel to keep trying to land in Haiti.

"I've got to tell you this near miss did not phase this group," Silberner said. "They are very anxious to get going."

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White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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