UNC Air Operations provides health transport services to medical professionals and faculty members, allowing them to travel to various locations across the state with ease. Unfortunately, one of their planes crashed at RDU, carrying Dr. Paul Chelminski, an internal medicine physician from UNC Health. Dr. Chelminski was hospitalized but later released, while the pilot, Art Johnson, is in fair condition at Duke University Medical Center.
UNC Air Operations operates a fleet of six planes and typically conducts five to seven flights daily, accommodating one to three passengers on each trip. These flights serve a range of purposes, such as transporting university faculty to conferences or medical residents to clinics for patient care.
According to Cotton, a representative from UNC Air Operations, the service they provide eases the burden on medical professionals by offering efficient transportation options. Despite the crash, weather conditions at the time were not considered a factor in the incident. The crash has prompted UNC Air Operations to review their safety protocols and implement new measures to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
