The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will meet next week to determine the probable cause of two 2011 accidents that claimed the lives of eight people and left six others with serious injuries.

In one incident, a pilot, flight nurse, flight paramedic and patient were killed in Mosby, Missouri on August 26 when a Eurocopter AS350 B2 helicopter crashed near the Midwest National Air Center. The helicopter was “substantially damaged” by impact forces.

In another, Hurricane Nate battered a 78.5-foot-long liftboat – the Trinity II – while it was about 15 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The four crewmembers and six contractors on board the Trinity II were forced to don lifejackets and abandon ship. They clung to a lifeboat for three days, until rescuers located them. By then, three had died (another would later die at a hospital). The six survivors sustained serious injuries.

The NTSB will meet on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, 9:30 am ET in the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, 429 L'Enfant Plaza, SW/Washington, DC 20594

The helicopter accident is the first item on the agenda.

A link to the webcast will be available on the following page shortly before the start of the meeting: http://www.capitolconnection.net/capcon/ntsb/ntsb.htm