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Nine Presumed Dead In Firefighting Helo Crash
Nine presumed dead in firefighting copter crash
Christopher Heredia, John Koopman,Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
(08-06) 16:23 PDT REDDING - -- In what might be one of the deadliest firefighting incidents in U.S. history, nine firefighters are presumed dead and four were seriously injured after their helicopter went down Tuesday night after battling a blaze in remote Trinity County, northwest of Redding, authorities said today.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration both dispatched teams to the crash site in a remote, wooded area near Junction City, about 215 miles northwest of Sacramento.
The U.S. Forest Service said that one individual was confirmed dead and eight are unaccounted for. It was unclear whether those unaccounted for had simply not yet been identified. The Federal Aviation Administration indicated there were 13 people on board the aircraft and told a fire service that there were nine fatalities.
Cynthia Sage, with the U.S. Forest Service, said the accident happened about 7:45 p.m. as the helicopter was ferrying firefighters back to a staging area after they had been working on the Trinity fire.
She said medical evacuation personnel responded to the scene, but they could not get the people with injuries out until around 9:30 p.m. because the crash was in a very remote location.
"We would like to ask the public to keep their thoughts and prayers for the fire personnel involved and the families," Sage said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the Sikorsky S-61 chopper was destroyed by fire after crashing "under unknown circumstances" in a remote mountain location. The nine were presumably killed in the fire that destroyed the helicopter, Gregor said.
The aircraft had a crew of two, both employees of Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore., and was carrying 11 firefighters. The pilot is among the injured and the co-pilot is listed as missing and presumed dead.
The four injured firefighters were transported to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Air National Guard spokeswoman Capt. Alyson M. Teeter said.
Mercy Medical Center spokesman Michael Burke said three of the firefighters have been transferred to UC-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, two in critical condition and one in serious condition. One of the firefighters remains at Mercy in serious condition, Burke said.
The Buckhorn Fire the crew had been fighting is 25 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. It's burned 17,755 acres. It's one of several fires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest caused by lightning strikes. All told fires that have been raging since June 21 have consumed more than 86,000 acres of grass, brush and trees.
The firefighters worked for a private contracting company, Greyback Forestry, headquartered in Merlin, Ore. No one from Greyback was available for comment. Greyback lost four firefighters in 2002 when the van they were in overturned on its way to fight a fire in Colorado.
Tuesday's crash was the worst involving firefighting aircraft in history, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. In 1972, seven firefighters perished in a crash in the Los Padres National Forest.
"I've flown a lot of helicopters and they've all been really safe," said Ken Palmrose, spokesman for the fire center. "Fatalities involving aircraft are rare."
The deadliest firefighting incident was the attack on the World Trade Centers on Sept. 11, when 340 firefighters lost their lives. According to the National Fire Protection Association, other deadly accidents include a 1994 incident in which 14 firefighters died while battling a wildfire in Glenwood Springs, Colo. In 1984, 10 firefighters were killed in an oil refinery fire in Romeoville, Ill.
Between 1990 and 2006, California had the highest number of wildland firefighter deaths in the nation - 64, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Colorado was second at 25, followed by Texas with 19. Prior to Wednesday's crash, the next deadliest incident in California was the October 2006 Esperanza Fire that killed five federal firefighters.
Bob Madden, spokesman for the Carson Helicopters, the company that owns the downed aircraft, said the pilot and co-pilot work for Carson Helicopters, he said, and they were transporting 11 firefighters at the time of the crash.
Madden said preliminary indications suggested that neither weather nor visibility should have played a role in the crash.
He said the company has 12 helicopters working in firefighting capacities around the country. The company uses a military-style Sikorsky S61 heavy helicopter, which is outfitted to carry water or fire-retardant chemicals to drop on a fire, and also to act as transportation for people and supplies. But the aircraft can only perform one of those missions at a time, Madden said. The helicopter can carry up to 15 passengers.
A Sikorsky S-61A owned and operated by Carson Helicopters crashed and burst into flames during a logging operation in Tennessee in March 2003, killing the 56-year-old pilot and seriously injuring the co-pilot, NTSB records show. Investigators blamed the crash on the malfunction of a component that was overdue for repair, and on the pilot flying too low to avert the crisis.
Madden said this was the first time one of the company's helicopters have crashed while working a wildland fire.
Jeff Gilbert, a director of the Northern California division of the California State Firefighters Association, has been fighting fires in Tehama, Shasta and Butte counties for about 21 days out of the last 35. He said the intensity of this year's fires came so early and have been so erratic, that crews are at more risk than ever.
"It's devastating," Gilbert said. "It doesn't matter if they're private guys or professional contractors. Everyone's out there trying to do the same job.
"We shouldn't be out there doing this until late August or September. With the lightning storm we just had roll through out here last night, there are probably going to be a lot more."
Nine presumed dead in firefighting copter crash
Christopher Heredia, John Koopman,Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
(08-06) 16:23 PDT REDDING - -- In what might be one of the deadliest firefighting incidents in U.S. history, nine firefighters are presumed dead and four were seriously injured after their helicopter went down Tuesday night after battling a blaze in remote Trinity County, northwest of Redding, authorities said today.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration both dispatched teams to the crash site in a remote, wooded area near Junction City, about 215 miles northwest of Sacramento.
The U.S. Forest Service said that one individual was confirmed dead and eight are unaccounted for. It was unclear whether those unaccounted for had simply not yet been identified. The Federal Aviation Administration indicated there were 13 people on board the aircraft and told a fire service that there were nine fatalities.
Cynthia Sage, with the U.S. Forest Service, said the accident happened about 7:45 p.m. as the helicopter was ferrying firefighters back to a staging area after they had been working on the Trinity fire.
She said medical evacuation personnel responded to the scene, but they could not get the people with injuries out until around 9:30 p.m. because the crash was in a very remote location.
"We would like to ask the public to keep their thoughts and prayers for the fire personnel involved and the families," Sage said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the Sikorsky S-61 chopper was destroyed by fire after crashing "under unknown circumstances" in a remote mountain location. The nine were presumably killed in the fire that destroyed the helicopter, Gregor said.
The aircraft had a crew of two, both employees of Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore., and was carrying 11 firefighters. The pilot is among the injured and the co-pilot is listed as missing and presumed dead.
The four injured firefighters were transported to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Air National Guard spokeswoman Capt. Alyson M. Teeter said.
Mercy Medical Center spokesman Michael Burke said three of the firefighters have been transferred to UC-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, two in critical condition and one in serious condition. One of the firefighters remains at Mercy in serious condition, Burke said.
The Buckhorn Fire the crew had been fighting is 25 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. It's burned 17,755 acres. It's one of several fires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest caused by lightning strikes. All told fires that have been raging since June 21 have consumed more than 86,000 acres of grass, brush and trees.
The firefighters worked for a private contracting company, Greyback Forestry, headquartered in Merlin, Ore. No one from Greyback was available for comment. Greyback lost four firefighters in 2002 when the van they were in overturned on its way to fight a fire in Colorado.
Tuesday's crash was the worst involving firefighting aircraft in history, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. In 1972, seven firefighters perished in a crash in the Los Padres National Forest.
"I've flown a lot of helicopters and they've all been really safe," said Ken Palmrose, spokesman for the fire center. "Fatalities involving aircraft are rare."
The deadliest firefighting incident was the attack on the World Trade Centers on Sept. 11, when 340 firefighters lost their lives. According to the National Fire Protection Association, other deadly accidents include a 1994 incident in which 14 firefighters died while battling a wildfire in Glenwood Springs, Colo. In 1984, 10 firefighters were killed in an oil refinery fire in Romeoville, Ill.
Between 1990 and 2006, California had the highest number of wildland firefighter deaths in the nation - 64, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Colorado was second at 25, followed by Texas with 19. Prior to Wednesday's crash, the next deadliest incident in California was the October 2006 Esperanza Fire that killed five federal firefighters.
Bob Madden, spokesman for the Carson Helicopters, the company that owns the downed aircraft, said the pilot and co-pilot work for Carson Helicopters, he said, and they were transporting 11 firefighters at the time of the crash.
Madden said preliminary indications suggested that neither weather nor visibility should have played a role in the crash.
He said the company has 12 helicopters working in firefighting capacities around the country. The company uses a military-style Sikorsky S61 heavy helicopter, which is outfitted to carry water or fire-retardant chemicals to drop on a fire, and also to act as transportation for people and supplies. But the aircraft can only perform one of those missions at a time, Madden said. The helicopter can carry up to 15 passengers.
A Sikorsky S-61A owned and operated by Carson Helicopters crashed and burst into flames during a logging operation in Tennessee in March 2003, killing the 56-year-old pilot and seriously injuring the co-pilot, NTSB records show. Investigators blamed the crash on the malfunction of a component that was overdue for repair, and on the pilot flying too low to avert the crisis.
Madden said this was the first time one of the company's helicopters have crashed while working a wildland fire.
Jeff Gilbert, a director of the Northern California division of the California State Firefighters Association, has been fighting fires in Tehama, Shasta and Butte counties for about 21 days out of the last 35. He said the intensity of this year's fires came so early and have been so erratic, that crews are at more risk than ever.
"It's devastating," Gilbert said. "It doesn't matter if they're private guys or professional contractors. Everyone's out there trying to do the same job.
"We shouldn't be out there doing this until late August or September. With the lightning storm we just had roll through out here last night, there are probably going to be a lot more."
Helo Took Off Too Slow, Hit Tree
Copter took off too slow, hit a tree
Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, August 8, 2008
(08-08) 14:23 PDT REDDING - -- The helicopter that crashed Tuesday evening in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest killing nine and injuring four firefighters lifted off from the helipad and moved forward at a slower-than-average speed, federal officials said today.
After rising 40 or 50 feet the nose of the helicopter hit a tree, the rotor blades also struck trees and branches before the craft slammed to the ground on its left side. The cabin quickly filled with thick, black smoke, said Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board, who spoke today at a press conference in Redding.
Higgins said the details came from 10 witness interviews, and were consistent.
Officials were working with coroners from the region and expect to recover the remains of the victims by the end of the day.
Prior to the crash, the helicopter had dropped two loads of water onto the fire area, completed two fire crew pick-ups and refueled. Higgins characterized the helicopter's schedule as "normal for this type of operation."
Higgins said the weather on Tuesday was clear, and winds were up to 5 miles per hour.
Today investigators will evaluate several factors at the crash site, including treetop levels, elevators and topographical information. They will also will examine the helicopter's two engines and driveshaft, and take samples from the truck used in the refueling.
The investigation is expected to wrap up within a year, but authorities began providing some early details about the maintenance records of the helicopter, which was built in 1964 and operated by Caron Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore.
The NTSB said the maintenance records from the past two months appeared to be in good order; they were in the midst of gathering records for the engines.
The helicopter itself had 35,000 hours of flying time. One of the two engines had more than 1,000 hours since its last maintenance; the other had over 200 hours. In addition, investigators said the aircraft's transmission had recently been replaced. It had accumulated only 23 hours of flying time.
A Carson pilot and seven firefighters employed by private firefighting firm Grayback Forestry of Merlin, Ore., were killed in the accident, as well as a U.S Forest Service employee. A pilot and three firefighters survived the crash and remained hospitalized. One of the firefighters is expected to be released from the hospital today.
Family members for all but one of the victims had been notified, Higgins said. It is believed the final family is on vacation.
Copter took off too slow, hit a tree
Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, August 8, 2008
(08-08) 14:23 PDT REDDING - -- The helicopter that crashed Tuesday evening in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest killing nine and injuring four firefighters lifted off from the helipad and moved forward at a slower-than-average speed, federal officials said today.
After rising 40 or 50 feet the nose of the helicopter hit a tree, the rotor blades also struck trees and branches before the craft slammed to the ground on its left side. The cabin quickly filled with thick, black smoke, said Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board, who spoke today at a press conference in Redding.
Higgins said the details came from 10 witness interviews, and were consistent.
Officials were working with coroners from the region and expect to recover the remains of the victims by the end of the day.
Prior to the crash, the helicopter had dropped two loads of water onto the fire area, completed two fire crew pick-ups and refueled. Higgins characterized the helicopter's schedule as "normal for this type of operation."
Higgins said the weather on Tuesday was clear, and winds were up to 5 miles per hour.
Today investigators will evaluate several factors at the crash site, including treetop levels, elevators and topographical information. They will also will examine the helicopter's two engines and driveshaft, and take samples from the truck used in the refueling.
The investigation is expected to wrap up within a year, but authorities began providing some early details about the maintenance records of the helicopter, which was built in 1964 and operated by Caron Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore.
The NTSB said the maintenance records from the past two months appeared to be in good order; they were in the midst of gathering records for the engines.
The helicopter itself had 35,000 hours of flying time. One of the two engines had more than 1,000 hours since its last maintenance; the other had over 200 hours. In addition, investigators said the aircraft's transmission had recently been replaced. It had accumulated only 23 hours of flying time.
A Carson pilot and seven firefighters employed by private firefighting firm Grayback Forestry of Merlin, Ore., were killed in the accident, as well as a U.S Forest Service employee. A pilot and three firefighters survived the crash and remained hospitalized. One of the firefighters is expected to be released from the hospital today.
Family members for all but one of the victims had been notified, Higgins said. It is believed the final family is on vacation.
Survivor Tells Of Helo's Final Moments
Survivor tells of helicopter's final moments
Meredith May, John Koopman,Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, August 8, 2008
(08-07) 16:24 PDT REDDING - -- Authorities confirmed Thursday that nine people listed as missing in a fiery helicopter crash in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest are dead, and one of four survivors provided chilling details about the horrific moments of the crash.
Firefighter Richard Schroeder told his mother that just before the copter went down, he heard the pilot say: "Duck! We're going down!"
The Trinity County Sheriff's Department confirmed the deaths at a news conference and said families were being notified. The Sheriff's Department is still trying to recover bodies from the crash site.
The accident Tuesday night in a remote forested area about 70 miles northwest of Redding took the life of a pilot of the helicopter and seven firefighters. The identity of the ninth victim was not released, but authorities said he was a U.S. Forest Service employee.
"We are devastated by this," said Mike Wheelock, owner of Grayback Forestry, a private firefighting firm based in Merlin, Ore., that employed the 10 firefighters aboard the copter.
Three of the injured remained at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. One man was in critical condition with burns over a third of his body, and two were upgraded to good condition.
A fourth survivor remained at Mercy Hospital in Redding, where he was listed in fair condition. That man, Grayback employee Schroeder, 42, told his mother a harrowing tale of death and survival in the burning wreckage of the helicopter.
Linda Parks of Medford, Ore., said in an interview that her son told her he had chosen a seat behind the pilot.
It was at the end of a long day cutting firebreaks to try to stop a fire in a remote part of the National Forest.
The helicopter had just returned from ferrying 13 other firefighters back to the base camp, he said. Schroeder clicked his seat belt, and the helicopter started rising from a clearing.
Somewhere between 200 and 300 feet off the ground, he heard what no air passenger ever wants to hear - the pilot yelling in panic.
Schroeder looked out the window in the split second of freefall and thought he saw the craft crashing through branches. In a second, he was on the ground, trapped under burning metal and a body.
He was injured but was able to push away the body - which was on fire - and wriggle out of his seat belt. The only way out was through a broken window. He smashed the window to make more room and crawled out to escape the flames. Three others made it out.
"Whoever landed on top of him, that's what saved his life," Parks said.
"He didn't hear any sound before it happened - he said the whole thing was over in a flash of an eye," Parks said.
Doctors call mother
Doctors called Parks on Tuesday night to report that her son was injured but was going to make it. He suffered a cracked scapula, fractured vertebra, cuts and bruises and would require stitches in his lips.
Parks asked her son how the other three men survived. Schroeder told her he believes they also crawled out the window after he did.
She said her son talked about the copter hitting tree branches during the final moments, but it was unclear whether he thought the helicopter might have struck them on takeoff or during the crash.
On Wednesday, Schroeder's girlfriend and three children - Kayla, 18, Cody, 16 and 3-year-old Ruby - traveled from Medford to Redding to comfort Schroeder.
"He's doing OK," Parks said. "He used to love helicopter rides - he thought they were awesome. I don't think he's going to say that anymore."
At UC Davis Medical Center, Duane Nelson, 53, a 30-year Forest Service veteran, said firefighters from around the state have been going to the hospital to show support for their injured comrades.
"It's hard, grueling work, and when something like this happens, it sucks the life out of it," he said. "But we have to keep doing our job."
The crash occurred at about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. The heavy firefighting helicopter, a Sikorsky S-61N owned by Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore., picked up 11 firefighters from a remote clearing deep in the forest and was about to take them at the end of their 12-hour shift to their base camp. Fire officials said the helicopter took off and then came right back down about 300 yards away.
Bob Madden, spokesman for Carson helicopters, said the chopper's angle changed within moments of takeoff, and it plummeted to earth, turning over as it rolled down the hill and burst into flames after a possible fuel line break.
Crew on ground help
About 20 firefighters still on the ground waiting to be ferried helped the injured firefighters until medical evacuation helicopters could arrive. The remoteness and the difficult terrain prevented a quick evacuation, however, and the injured were not moved until about 9:30 p.m.
Two other Carson helicopters also assigned to the fire responded to the crash and dropped water both on the encroaching wildland fire and the burning Sikorsky. Madden said the water helped cool down the chopper's hull, but the aircraft continued to burn into Thursday morning.
National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins said a small team of investigators has reached the site and is trying to assess what material, equipment and personnel will be needed to determine the cause of the crash.
One of their first missions will be to find the helicopter's voice recorder, which was stored in the nose of the aircraft. That will tell investigators what the crew said at the time of the accident. The helicopter does not have a data recorder, as do commercial airliners, that would indicate altitude, speed and pitch.
Investigators have begun talking to witnesses and going over records. Higgins said they would put together a timeline for events leading up to the crash and look at the maintenance records for the helicopter.
"We try to go about this very methodically," she said.
Some experts were already calling it the country's worst civilian helicopter crash.
"When you talk about nine people killed and four horribly injured, it's the most horrific non-military crash in U.S. history," said Gary Robb, a Kansas City attorney who has represented victims of helicopter crashes and their families for nearly three decades.
Robb said he had been contacted by some of the families of the crash victims, but he declined to identify them.
Given the pilots' qualifications - the company said they had 25,000 combined hours of operating helicopters - and the fact that weather and visibility did not appear to pose problems, Robb suggested that an equipment failure may have played a role in the crash.
Malfunction indicated
"I've been doing this 27 years, and every indication is of an in-flight mechanical malfunction," Robb said. "These are not the kind of pilots who are going to fly this helicopter into the ground. It could have been a tail rotor malfunction, a systems control problem, a linkage problem with the main rotor or engine failure. We're dealing with some kind of in-flight mechanical malfunction because there's no other logical explanation for what happened."
Robb said helicopters account for 10 to 12 percent of all aircraft flights in the United States, yet are responsible for almost 50 percent of all crashes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The crew in Tuesday's crash had been fighting the Buckhorn Fire, part of the Iron Complex fires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The fires, caused by lightning strikes, have been burning since June 21 and are mostly contained. The Buckhorn Fire has burned more than 15,000 acres and is 25 percent contained, Overall, the Iron Complex fires have burned about 87,000 acres and are roughly 80 percent contained. There are three active fires in the complex, and full containment is not expected until Sept. 1.
The victims
INJURED
William Coultas, 44, Cave Junction, Ore. Pilot for Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore. Critical condition at UC Davis Medical Center with burns over a third of his body.
Michael Brown, 20, Medford, Ore. Firefighter with Grayback Forestry of Merlin, Ore. Good condition at UC Davis with facial burns and fractures.
Jonathan Frohreich, 18, Medford, Ore. Grayback firefighter. Good condition at UC Davis.
Rich Schroeder, 42, Medford, Ore. Grayback firefighter. Fair condition at Mercy Hospital in Redding.
KILLED*
Shawn Blazer, 30, Medford, Ore.
Scott Charleson, 25, Phoenix, Ore.
Matthew Hammer, 23, Grants Pass, Ore.
Edrik Gomez, 19, Ashland, Ore.
Bryan Rich, 29, Medford, Ore.
David Steele, 19, Ashland, Ore.
Roark Schwanenberg, 54, Carson pilot, Lostine, Ore.
* The first six were Grayback firefighters. The names of one Grayback employee and a U.S. Forest Service employee who were killed have not been released.
Survivor tells of helicopter's final moments
Meredith May, John Koopman,Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, August 8, 2008
(08-07) 16:24 PDT REDDING - -- Authorities confirmed Thursday that nine people listed as missing in a fiery helicopter crash in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest are dead, and one of four survivors provided chilling details about the horrific moments of the crash.
Firefighter Richard Schroeder told his mother that just before the copter went down, he heard the pilot say: "Duck! We're going down!"
The Trinity County Sheriff's Department confirmed the deaths at a news conference and said families were being notified. The Sheriff's Department is still trying to recover bodies from the crash site.
The accident Tuesday night in a remote forested area about 70 miles northwest of Redding took the life of a pilot of the helicopter and seven firefighters. The identity of the ninth victim was not released, but authorities said he was a U.S. Forest Service employee.
"We are devastated by this," said Mike Wheelock, owner of Grayback Forestry, a private firefighting firm based in Merlin, Ore., that employed the 10 firefighters aboard the copter.
Three of the injured remained at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. One man was in critical condition with burns over a third of his body, and two were upgraded to good condition.
A fourth survivor remained at Mercy Hospital in Redding, where he was listed in fair condition. That man, Grayback employee Schroeder, 42, told his mother a harrowing tale of death and survival in the burning wreckage of the helicopter.
Linda Parks of Medford, Ore., said in an interview that her son told her he had chosen a seat behind the pilot.
It was at the end of a long day cutting firebreaks to try to stop a fire in a remote part of the National Forest.
The helicopter had just returned from ferrying 13 other firefighters back to the base camp, he said. Schroeder clicked his seat belt, and the helicopter started rising from a clearing.
Somewhere between 200 and 300 feet off the ground, he heard what no air passenger ever wants to hear - the pilot yelling in panic.
Schroeder looked out the window in the split second of freefall and thought he saw the craft crashing through branches. In a second, he was on the ground, trapped under burning metal and a body.
He was injured but was able to push away the body - which was on fire - and wriggle out of his seat belt. The only way out was through a broken window. He smashed the window to make more room and crawled out to escape the flames. Three others made it out.
"Whoever landed on top of him, that's what saved his life," Parks said.
"He didn't hear any sound before it happened - he said the whole thing was over in a flash of an eye," Parks said.
Doctors call mother
Doctors called Parks on Tuesday night to report that her son was injured but was going to make it. He suffered a cracked scapula, fractured vertebra, cuts and bruises and would require stitches in his lips.
Parks asked her son how the other three men survived. Schroeder told her he believes they also crawled out the window after he did.
She said her son talked about the copter hitting tree branches during the final moments, but it was unclear whether he thought the helicopter might have struck them on takeoff or during the crash.
On Wednesday, Schroeder's girlfriend and three children - Kayla, 18, Cody, 16 and 3-year-old Ruby - traveled from Medford to Redding to comfort Schroeder.
"He's doing OK," Parks said. "He used to love helicopter rides - he thought they were awesome. I don't think he's going to say that anymore."
At UC Davis Medical Center, Duane Nelson, 53, a 30-year Forest Service veteran, said firefighters from around the state have been going to the hospital to show support for their injured comrades.
"It's hard, grueling work, and when something like this happens, it sucks the life out of it," he said. "But we have to keep doing our job."
The crash occurred at about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. The heavy firefighting helicopter, a Sikorsky S-61N owned by Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore., picked up 11 firefighters from a remote clearing deep in the forest and was about to take them at the end of their 12-hour shift to their base camp. Fire officials said the helicopter took off and then came right back down about 300 yards away.
Bob Madden, spokesman for Carson helicopters, said the chopper's angle changed within moments of takeoff, and it plummeted to earth, turning over as it rolled down the hill and burst into flames after a possible fuel line break.
Crew on ground help
About 20 firefighters still on the ground waiting to be ferried helped the injured firefighters until medical evacuation helicopters could arrive. The remoteness and the difficult terrain prevented a quick evacuation, however, and the injured were not moved until about 9:30 p.m.
Two other Carson helicopters also assigned to the fire responded to the crash and dropped water both on the encroaching wildland fire and the burning Sikorsky. Madden said the water helped cool down the chopper's hull, but the aircraft continued to burn into Thursday morning.
National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins said a small team of investigators has reached the site and is trying to assess what material, equipment and personnel will be needed to determine the cause of the crash.
One of their first missions will be to find the helicopter's voice recorder, which was stored in the nose of the aircraft. That will tell investigators what the crew said at the time of the accident. The helicopter does not have a data recorder, as do commercial airliners, that would indicate altitude, speed and pitch.
Investigators have begun talking to witnesses and going over records. Higgins said they would put together a timeline for events leading up to the crash and look at the maintenance records for the helicopter.
"We try to go about this very methodically," she said.
Some experts were already calling it the country's worst civilian helicopter crash.
"When you talk about nine people killed and four horribly injured, it's the most horrific non-military crash in U.S. history," said Gary Robb, a Kansas City attorney who has represented victims of helicopter crashes and their families for nearly three decades.
Robb said he had been contacted by some of the families of the crash victims, but he declined to identify them.
Given the pilots' qualifications - the company said they had 25,000 combined hours of operating helicopters - and the fact that weather and visibility did not appear to pose problems, Robb suggested that an equipment failure may have played a role in the crash.
Malfunction indicated
"I've been doing this 27 years, and every indication is of an in-flight mechanical malfunction," Robb said. "These are not the kind of pilots who are going to fly this helicopter into the ground. It could have been a tail rotor malfunction, a systems control problem, a linkage problem with the main rotor or engine failure. We're dealing with some kind of in-flight mechanical malfunction because there's no other logical explanation for what happened."
Robb said helicopters account for 10 to 12 percent of all aircraft flights in the United States, yet are responsible for almost 50 percent of all crashes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The crew in Tuesday's crash had been fighting the Buckhorn Fire, part of the Iron Complex fires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The fires, caused by lightning strikes, have been burning since June 21 and are mostly contained. The Buckhorn Fire has burned more than 15,000 acres and is 25 percent contained, Overall, the Iron Complex fires have burned about 87,000 acres and are roughly 80 percent contained. There are three active fires in the complex, and full containment is not expected until Sept. 1.
The victims
INJURED
William Coultas, 44, Cave Junction, Ore. Pilot for Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore. Critical condition at UC Davis Medical Center with burns over a third of his body.
Michael Brown, 20, Medford, Ore. Firefighter with Grayback Forestry of Merlin, Ore. Good condition at UC Davis with facial burns and fractures.
Jonathan Frohreich, 18, Medford, Ore. Grayback firefighter. Good condition at UC Davis.
Rich Schroeder, 42, Medford, Ore. Grayback firefighter. Fair condition at Mercy Hospital in Redding.
KILLED*
Shawn Blazer, 30, Medford, Ore.
Scott Charleson, 25, Phoenix, Ore.
Matthew Hammer, 23, Grants Pass, Ore.
Edrik Gomez, 19, Ashland, Ore.
Bryan Rich, 29, Medford, Ore.
David Steele, 19, Ashland, Ore.
Roark Schwanenberg, 54, Carson pilot, Lostine, Ore.
* The first six were Grayback firefighters. The names of one Grayback employee and a U.S. Forest Service employee who were killed have not been released.
Pilot Burned In Helo Crash Still Critical
Pilot burned in helicopter crash still in critical
Sunday, August 10, 2008
(08-10) 13:53 PDT Weaverville, CA (AP) --
The pilot of a firefighting helicopter that went down in a Northern California wilderness remained hospitalized Sunday as authorities worked to recover the remains of nine killed in the crash.
Pilot William Coultas, 44, of Cave Junction, Ore. has undergone skin graft surgery for severe burns he suffered in the Tuesday night crash. He was in critical but stable condition Sunday, said Martha Alcott, a spokeswoman for UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
Two firefighters who suffered burns, cuts and broken bones were discharged from the same hospital Saturday, while a third firefighter was released from a Redding hospital Friday.
The four were the only survivors of the crash out of 13 on board.
At a helicopter base near the remote crash site in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, choppers carrying flag-draped stretchers bearing victims' remains arrived Saturday to an honor guard of firefighters.
Fire engines then escorted a van loaded with the stretchers to the Trinity County Coroner's office in Weaverville, where authorities will try to identify the remains, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Tom Kroll.
Medical examiners will likely need to rely on dental records and DNA analysis to identify the badly burned bodies, Kroll said. The painstaking recovery effort was expected to be completed Sunday.
The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter had just been refueled when it lifted off more slowly than normal before, struck a tree and plummeted into a hillside, according to National Transportation Safety Board officials.
The chopper erupted into an intense fire after the crash that continued to smolder for more than a day before NTSB investigators traveled to the site to inspect the wreckage.
The helicopter was ferrying ten firefighters, two pilots and a U.S. Forest Service employee back to base camp when it fell out of the sky.
The cockpit voice-data recorder recovered from the wreckage Thursday was made by a British company and was being sent to Britain for analysis, NTSB officials said.
The firefighters killed and injured, private contractors who worked for Merlin-Ore.-based Grayback Forestry Inc., had spent the day fighting the so-called Buckhorn Fire, one of many blazes sparked by a barrage of lightning in late June.
The 34-square-mile blaze was 20 percent contained Sunday, fire officials said.
Pilot burned in helicopter crash still in critical
Sunday, August 10, 2008
(08-10) 13:53 PDT Weaverville, CA (AP) --
The pilot of a firefighting helicopter that went down in a Northern California wilderness remained hospitalized Sunday as authorities worked to recover the remains of nine killed in the crash.
Pilot William Coultas, 44, of Cave Junction, Ore. has undergone skin graft surgery for severe burns he suffered in the Tuesday night crash. He was in critical but stable condition Sunday, said Martha Alcott, a spokeswoman for UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
Two firefighters who suffered burns, cuts and broken bones were discharged from the same hospital Saturday, while a third firefighter was released from a Redding hospital Friday.
The four were the only survivors of the crash out of 13 on board.
At a helicopter base near the remote crash site in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, choppers carrying flag-draped stretchers bearing victims' remains arrived Saturday to an honor guard of firefighters.
Fire engines then escorted a van loaded with the stretchers to the Trinity County Coroner's office in Weaverville, where authorities will try to identify the remains, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Tom Kroll.
Medical examiners will likely need to rely on dental records and DNA analysis to identify the badly burned bodies, Kroll said. The painstaking recovery effort was expected to be completed Sunday.
The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter had just been refueled when it lifted off more slowly than normal before, struck a tree and plummeted into a hillside, according to National Transportation Safety Board officials.
The chopper erupted into an intense fire after the crash that continued to smolder for more than a day before NTSB investigators traveled to the site to inspect the wreckage.
The helicopter was ferrying ten firefighters, two pilots and a U.S. Forest Service employee back to base camp when it fell out of the sky.
The cockpit voice-data recorder recovered from the wreckage Thursday was made by a British company and was being sent to Britain for analysis, NTSB officials said.
The firefighters killed and injured, private contractors who worked for Merlin-Ore.-based Grayback Forestry Inc., had spent the day fighting the so-called Buckhorn Fire, one of many blazes sparked by a barrage of lightning in late June.
The 34-square-mile blaze was 20 percent contained Sunday, fire officials said.
Power Loss Felled Firefighting Helicopter
Power loss felled firefighting helicopter
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, August 22, 2008
(08-21) 12:06 PDT REDDING -- The firefighting helicopter that went down in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest this month, killing nine men and injuring four others, lost power to its main rotor, according to a preliminary report issued Thursday.
The helicopter, a heavy-duty, specially outfitted Sikorsky S-61N, "experienced a loss of power to the main rotor during takeoff initial climb" before it crashed into trees Aug. 5, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
The crash was one of the worst helicopter accidents in U.S. history. The reason for the power loss to the rotor is not expected to be known for several months at least.
The helicopter was taking firefighters out of the forest because of worsening weather conditions. The pilots had completed two trips and went to refuel, then flew back to a helipad at the 5,935-foot elevation. The helicopter was headed to another helipad at the 2,516-foot level when it crashed, the report said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at [email protected]
Power loss felled firefighting helicopter
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, August 22, 2008
(08-21) 12:06 PDT REDDING -- The firefighting helicopter that went down in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest this month, killing nine men and injuring four others, lost power to its main rotor, according to a preliminary report issued Thursday.
The helicopter, a heavy-duty, specially outfitted Sikorsky S-61N, "experienced a loss of power to the main rotor during takeoff initial climb" before it crashed into trees Aug. 5, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
The crash was one of the worst helicopter accidents in U.S. history. The reason for the power loss to the rotor is not expected to be known for several months at least.
The helicopter was taking firefighters out of the forest because of worsening weather conditions. The pilots had completed two trips and went to refuel, then flew back to a helipad at the 5,935-foot elevation. The helicopter was headed to another helipad at the 2,516-foot level when it crashed, the report said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at [email protected]
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