1 body found in copter crash
Search of Puget Sound for 2 others on medical flight still under way

By HECTOR CASTRO AND TRACY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

The remains of one person were recovered Friday as search crews combed the waters of Puget Sound north of Seattle for the wreckage of an Airlift Northwest medical transport helicopter -- the second deadly accident to befall the company in 10 years.

The pilot and two nurses aboard the twin-engine Agusta A109 helicopter were killed when the aircraft crashed Thursday night into the waters off Edmonds, authorities said. No patient was aboard.

From left, pilot Steve Smith and nurses Lois Suzuki and Erin Reed.

"It's with obvious sadness that we're gathering here today for this tragedy," Dr. David Baker, Airlift Northwest's acting medical director, told reporters Friday. "We're all deeply affected by their loss."

Baker offered condolences to the families of the crew, identified as pilot Steve Smith, 59, of Whidbey Island, and nurses Erin Reed, 48, and Lois Suzuki, 47, both of Seattle.

Smith, a pilot with thousands of hours of flying experience, was once shot down in Vietnam. Three years ago, he barely survived an Airlift Northwest helicopter crash when he was at the controls.

The cause of Thursday's tragedy remains a puzzle. Although several people who live in the area heard the crash, no witnesses have been found. There was no indication that anyone aboard made a distress call.

As of Friday evening, only pieces of wreckage had been found.

"It may not be in one piece, mainly because we're finding debris," said Georgia Struhsaker, a Seattle-based senior air safety investigator who is leading the National Transportation Safety Board investigation.

Friday, six Coast Guard vessels searched the surface of the water and had the help of the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, which used its sonar equipment to search the Puget Sound floor at depths of roughly 250 to 400 feet.

"We will continue searching until we find the helicopter," Struhsaker said.

Federal investigators had only begun gathering information and would not speculate on the cause of the crash, she said. The Federal Aviation Administration gathered maintenance records and other documents about the helicopter, and NTSB officials gathered records on Smith.

Investigators also will consider the weather and look at radar recordings, which would show whether the pilot made any changes in altitude -- to dodge adverse weather, for example.

The evening was generally drizzly, but it wasn't clear whether it was raining exactly where and when the crash occurred.

The helicopter does not have a "black box," or flight data recorder.

The crash occurred shortly after the Airlift Northwest crew completed its last mission, transporting a 62-year-old critically ill man to Harborview Medical Center, Airlift officials said. The helicopter left the Seattle hospital's helipad at 9:04 p.m., bound for its home base in Arlington, about 40 miles north of Seattle.

The company's last contact with Smith came 10 minutes later, when he was in the area of Browns Bay, off the north Edmonds shoreline, according to a radar crew at McChord Air Force Base.

At about the same time, residents in Edmonds called 911 to report hearing what they believed was a helicopter crashing.

Edmonds police officers and Snohomish County sheriff's deputies immediately began searching the beach and wooded areas along the shoreline. A command post was set up at a local Edmonds fire station. The Coast Guard, the Bainbridge Island Marine Unit, the Department of Transportation's Aviation Emergency Services and the Civil Air Patrol were all contacted.

Dan DeLong / P-I     Deb Sampson, executive vice president of operations for Airlift Northwest, and Dr. David Baker, acting medical director for emergency services at Harborview Medical Center and acting medical director for Airlift, choke up as they talk about the pilot and two nurses at a news conference Friday.

The crew of a 41-foot Coast Guard utility vessel, dispatched from Seattle's Pier 36 at 10:30 p.m., was the first to report debris about 1:30 a.m. Friday. The wreckage was scattered over an area a quarter-mile wide and a half-mile long.

Thursday's crash came just weeks after the 10-year anniversary of the last fatal crash involving an Airlift Northwest crew, commemorated at a service on Bainbridge Island.

The memory of that day was clearly on the mind of company leaders during Friday's news briefing at Boeing Field.

"I guess if I learned anything, it's that people have to talk after a crash," said Deb Sampson, executive vice president of operations for Airlift Northwest.

The air ambulance service, founded in 1982, has seven bases around the Pacific Northwest. Helicopters were added to the program in 1985. The company had a contract with CJ Systems Aviation Group, based in Pennsylvania, to provide the aircraft, pilots and all maintenance for the program.

Bearing black ribbons pinned to their breasts with tiny helicopters in the familiar red and white markings of the air ambulance service, Airlift employees were visibly shaken by the events.

Sampson teared up and was clearly moved as she described, in personal terms, the crew that died.

CJ Aviation President Larry Pietropaulo said his company would work with federal investigators to determine the cause of this latest crash.

"It's like our worst nightmare," he said.

The aircraft in question, first built in 1984, just had an engine replaced last month, Pietropaulo said, and the new engine had just 70 hours of flying time on it. It was one of six such aircraft used by Airlift Northwest, which he said is transitioning to more modern craft -- the A109 Power EMS helicopter.

Sampson said Airlift initially chose Agusta aircraft in 1985 because it was the type of copter the company needed -- a light, twin-engine helicopter.