NTSB Factual Report

On June 29, 2018, about 1616 central daylight time, a Beech B200GT airplane, N902SH, experienced a turbulence event that resulted in a serious injury to a medical crewmember while in cruise flight near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The pilot, copilot, two medical crewmembers, and one patient were not injured. There was no damage to the airplane. The airplane was owned and operated by the Sanford Medical Center dba Sanford AirMed under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 as an air medical flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the flight, which was on an instrument flight plan. The airplane departed the Aberdeen Regional Airport (ABR) about 1559 and was en route to FSD at the time of the occurrence.

The pilot reported that the airplane was in cruise flight at 17,000 ft above mean sea level when the airplane experienced one severe "bump." A flight nurse hit her head on the ceiling while having a seat belt on. The flight nurse was admitted into a hospital for 48 hours for observation.

At 1556, the surface weather observation at FSD was wind 210° at 16 kts with gusts to 25 kts; 10 miles visibility; few clouds at 6,000 ft; temperature 32° C; dew point 23° C; altimeter 29.63 inches of mercury.