Lipperer was Med Flight pilot for 8 years
Steve Lipperer, the pilot of the Med Flight helicopter that crashed Saturday night near La Crosse, was recently married to Dr. Desiree La Charite, a Med Flight physician since 2001. The couple lives in the town of Westport.
Lipperer had been with Med Flight for eight years and had been a pilot for more than 20 years, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
The plane crashed Saturday night about four miles from La Crosse. The two-man crew and its pilot were returning to Madison after taking a patient to Gundersen Lutheran Hospital.
Craig Yale of Air Methods, the Colorado-based company that contracted with UW Hospital, said that Lipperer had been an airplane mechanic before he was a pilot.
Yale, who was in Madison Sunday, said the tragedy is very similar to a line of service death with a police officer or firefighter.
"It is amazing the amount of community grief that goes along with something like this, as well as finding out just how much these type of people touched the lives of so many people," Yale said.
Lipperer's cousin, Joann Lipperer of Milwaukee, said that Lipperer was hard-working and devoted to his job.
"It was a real impressive kind of a job, to help others get to some place faster than on the road," she said.
Joann Lipperer called her cousin a "real friendly" guy. "He died at a young age."
Lipperer's father, Ray, of Johnson Creek, declined to talk to a reporter Sunday. He did say his son was 39 and had no children.
Steve Lipperer
