Fallen Port Pilot Honored in Memorial Ceremony

Often without a moment's notice, medical pilots and their crewmembers are commanded into the air and off to a scene where someone is dire need of medical attention. Their business is saving lives, but in the process they risk their own. 

William Didier, who grew up in Port Washington, when he went down with a Trans North Aviation medical transport plane in November in Riverwoods, IL, about 30 miles northwest of Chicago.

In June he will be honored for his life work at the Air Medical Memorial Remembrance Ceremony, along with six other medical crewmembers who died last year, and 351 who have died since 1972, by AMM counts.

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"I put them in a category with firefighters, police and soldiers," AMM Co-Founder and Board Chair Steven Sweeney said. "There’s an inherent risk in what they do, and I’m grateful that they do it."

Didier's flight crashed just three miles short of the end its 1,160-mile journey Nov. 28, spent of fuel and attempting to coast to a safe landing, according to . Didier was transporting John Bialek, 80, to Chicago for medical attention. He had moved to Cedar Grove just five months before his death to be closer to his work.

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During the remembrance ceremony June 22 near Denver, CO, local flight programs will fly in, and people will speak and pray on behalf of Didier and other crewmembers who died last year. Didier's wife will likely be present, Didier's brother Peter Didier said.

"I think it's a really nice thing for him to be honored with other people who gave their life," Peter Didier said.

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The other six crewmembers to be honored include:

• Luis Felipe Bonilla, a 49-year-old surgeon of Rochester, MN, who died in a helicopter crash Dec. 26 near Palatka, FL;
• Randy Bever, a 47-year-old a flight nurse from Savannah, MO, who died along with the three other people aboard the LifeNet helicopter that crashed;
• Chris Frakes, 36-year-old a flight paramedic from Savannah, MO, who was on the flight with Bever;
• James Freudenberg, a 34-year-old pilot from Black Hawk, SD, also on the
  helicopter with Bever and Frakes;
• David Hines, a 57-year-old transplant technician of Jacksonville, FL, who died doing his job when the helicopter went down.
• E. Hoke Smith Jr., a 67-year-old who was president of SK Jets, a private company that charters jets and helicopters, and was on the flight with Hines.

Sweeney founded the Colorado-based organization in 2009 after he lost a friend and several coworkers to medical transport crashes. They are currently raising money to construct a memorial park and survivors garden in 2013 at the site of the ceremony where people can remember crewmembers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

"Not all accidents take place somewhere that you can visit," Sweeney said. "I think part of the grieving process is helped by having a physical place to go and reflect, and think about them."