Four people died after a Romanian emergency rescue (SMURD) helicopter crashed in Moldova Republic on Thursday, June 2. The helicopter’s crew were in a mission to save a patient that had suffered a stroke. At the moment of the tragedy, Moldova Republic was under a code yellow for rain.

The accident took place shortly after 1 PM local time, before the helicopter got to the victim that was supposed to be rescued, a 64-year old man who had a stroke.

The four people who died in the helicopter crash were Romanian pilot Doru Gavril, his copilot Voicu Socae, doctor Mihaela Dumea, and nurse Gabriel Sandu. The four people lived in Iasi. The pilot and copilot worked in the emergency structures of the Interior Ministry while the doctor and nurse worked at the Sfantul Spiridon Emergency Hospital in Iasi.

Pilot Doru Gavril, 53, had over 4,180 flight hours on helicopters. He was married and had one child, according to Romania’s Interior Ministry. The other three crew members were between 35 and 40. They were all experienced SMURD rescuers. They all left behind families and children.

The helicopter they were flying with belonged to the Emergency Situations Inspectorate (ISU) and was performing mission in Moldova Republic based on an agreement between Romania’s and Moldova’s Governments, which had been signed in 2014. The helicopter was made in 2014 and was at its 12 mission in Moldova.

Romania’s Interior Ministry decided to keep all similar helicopters on the ground until the investigators find more information about the causes of this tragedy. A team of military prosecutors and police officers was sent to search the site of the accident. State secretary Raed Arafat, the founder of the SMURD program, also went there.

Romania’s Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip have agreed that a joint investigation would be carried out.

This is the second tragedy involving a SMURD helicopter in the past two years. In December 2014, an emergency rescue helicopter crashed into the Siutghiol lake near Romania's Mamaia seaside resort. The four crew members lost their lives despite surviving the crash as the rescuers couldn't get to them in due time to save them.

Two similar crashes involving SMURD helicopters occurred in January 2006, near the Iasi airport, and in March 2003, near Cluj-Napoca. In each of these cases the crew members lost their lives.

editor@romania-insider.com