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Gary Robb, a Kansas City aviation attorney specializing in helicopter safety, said SK Jets is known as a careful and safe operator in the industry. The small, lightweight craft has low weight and speed capabilities and is primarily used by traffic reporters or police departments, Robb said. "It's not usually used in donor flights," he said. "If you're on a mission where time is sensitive, why use an engine that is low performance?" Robb said, adding that the helicopter has a cramped cabin. An NTSB investigator will scour the crash site for clues and look into the pilot's experience and any factors that might have impaired the pilot, any environmental factors such as birds or low visibility that may have contributed to the crash, and any mechanical problems with the helicopter, he said. The Bell 206 usually has an older engine no longer installed in new models, Robb said. "We've seen a number of instances where that engine simply failed," Robb said. The crash and others like it illustrate the delicate nature of transporting organs. In 1990, a surgeon and an assistant flying to pick up a donor heart for a patient were killed in a plane crash in New Mexico. And in 2007, a twin-engine plane carrying a team of surgeons and technicians
-- along with a set of lungs on ice being brought to a patient already prepped for surgery
-- crashed into the choppy waters of Lake Michigan. Six were killed. Doctors ultimately got another set of donor lungs that were transplanted into the patient.
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