The Mayo One medevac helicopter is always a popular draw when it attends public events around its home base near Minneapolis. But visitors to the Minnesota Air Spectacular in Mankato over the weekend got the surprise of their lives when a six-year-old child who was sitting inside the EC145 somehow managed to fire up the multi-million-dollar helicopter’s engines.
Witnesses described seeing Mayo One’s rotor blades suddenly start turning at about 1:45 p.m. on Saturday while the helicopter was parked in the airshow’s static display area.
Video of the incident shows the rotor blast having blown over a tent before a Mayo One pilot manages to reach the cockpit and initiate the shutdown procedure.
The Mayo Clinic issued a statement saying two people inside the tent suffered minor injuries.
“Mayo Clinic is conducting a thorough review and has proactively reported the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration,” the hospital said. “The safety of our patients, our team members and the general public is Mayo Clinic’s highest priority.”
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