A state medevac system already under heavy scrutiny stemming from a critical audit released in August now faces renewed questions following Sunday morning's crash in Prince George's County that killed four people, including three Charles County residents.

But lawmakers urged restraint as the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and state police investigates the site of the wreckage at Walker Mill Regional Park.

"The unfortunate part is the timing of the incident," said Del. Steven J. DeBoy Sr. (D-Baltimore, Howard), House chairman of the Joint Audit Committee. "The timing couldn't be worse, but having said that our thoughts and prayers really need to be on the victims of the crash."

The state police ordered its 12-helicopter fleet grounded until mechanical failure is ruled out as a cause of the incident. And lawmakers said it's premature to make a correlation between the audit and the crash.

"We always have to be careful not to use a tragic incident like this to try to make a case that's not justified," said Sen. Rona E. Kramer (D-Montgomery), who sits on the Joint Audit Committee. "As far as I'm concerned, we wait and we find out what the results of the investigation are and then we make intelligent decisions rather than emotional decisions."

Auditors delivered a fault-finding evaluation in August that the aviation command was unable to determine its cost per flight hour, cost per repair, total maintenance cost per helicopter and downtime per helicopter. The omissions left lawmakers unable to assess the state police's plan to spend $110 million to replace the aging fleet.

The Joint Audit Committee sent a letter to the FAA last week requesting they review medevac operations and procedures

Yet legislators praised the unit's safety record of 90,000 hours without an accident or incident that required filing a report with the NTSB, since a crash in 1986.

The early-morning crash is a major blow to the public safety community and medevac advocates.

"I think the best thing we can do as elected officials is support the state police and all the communities that are involved and take a time out," said DeBoy, a Howard County police detective.

Maryland State Police Trooper 2, based at Andrews Air Force Base, was called to the scene of a traffic accident in Waldorf at about 11 p.m. Saturday. The two-person crew flew to the crash site and headed with two teenage patients toward Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly. They were joined by a Waldorf Volunteer Rescue Squad member.

But the chopper never made it. State and county police initiated a search for the helicopter around 12:30 a.m. Sunday and officers located the wreckage shortly before 2 a.m. in a heavily wooded area of the park in Forestville.

State police identified the deceased as Stephen J. Bunker, 59, of Waldorf, the pilot; Trooper First Class Mickey C. Lippy, 34 of Westminster, the flight paramedic; Tanya Mallard, 39, of Waldorf, the emergency medical technician from the Waldorf squad; and Ashley J. Younger, 17, of Waldorf, one of the injured car crash victims. The lone survivor is Jordan A. Wells, 18, of Waldorf, who was in critical condition at Prince George's Hospital Center as of Monday afternoon.

Regardless of the cause of the crash – poor weather is considered a possibility – it is sure to shine a spotlight on the medevac system.

"We need to move forward with what we're doing on the audit," said Sen. David R. Brinkley (R-Frederick, Carroll). "I think the audit raised some very critical issues and time will tell whether there's any nexus between the findings of the audit and the tragedy that happened. We just don't know."

Del. Galen R. Clagett (D-Frederick) had already planned to re-introduce legislation for the 2009 session that would place a helicopter pilot from the aviation division on the State Emergency Medical Services Board. He has repeatedly suggested submitting a bill to move the division under the Department of Transportation, where it would become a civilian-run outfit.

It was the first fatal crash involving a state police helicopter since Trooper 3, based in Frederick, hit a hillside in a park in West Baltimore in heavy fog in January 1986, killing the pilot and on-board paramedic. That crash led the state to upgrade its helicopter fleet.

"Unfortunately, it took the last tragedy of 22 years ago of Trooper 3 to really provide an impetus for change," Brinkley observed.

The chopper involved in Sunday's crash was a Eurocopter Dauphin II twin jet engine helicopter. It became a part of the state police fleet in June 1989, and was the second helicopter purchased in the current fleet. The helicopter completed a 100-hour inspection Sept. 24.