ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
RIP
Semper Paratus:rawk:
Semper Paratus:rawk:http://www.adn.com/2010/07/07/1357055/coast-guard-chopper-crashes-on.htmlSEATTLE - Officials say three U.S. Coast Guard crew members are dead and one is at a Seattle hospital following a helicopter crash off the Washington coast.
The condition of the survivor wasn't immediately clear, but a Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman says the patient is awake and alert.
Rear Adm. Gary Blore says the four-member crew was based in Sitka, Alaska, and was returning there from Astoria, Ore., when it crashed off James Island near La Push, Wash., Wednesday morning.
Residents of the nearby Quileute Nation rushed to help, pulling some of the crash victims from the water.
La Push is about 100 miles west of Seattle on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.
-------------------------------------
A third member of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew has been pulled from the water off La Push and rescuers are still searching for a fourth crew member following a helicopter crash this morning just northwest of James Island.
Two crew members were quickly rescued by five members of the Quileute Nation, who jumped into fishing boats and raced to the crash scene. One of the rescued crew members is believed to have died after being brought ashore.
According to one witness, who is vacationing at a resort run by the tribe, the Coast Guard helicopter hit a large power cable that runs from La Push to James Island just before it crashed.
Petty Officer Nathan Bradshaw, a Coast Guard spokesman in Seattle, said he heard that at least one crew member had died but was unable to confirm the death. He said the third crew member was found around 11 a.m.
Bradshaw said the Coast Guard lost contact with an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, which was en route from Astoria, Ore., to Sitka around 9:30 a.m.
Darryl Penn, the harbormaster for the Quileute Nation, returned to work Monday after vacationing in Los Angeles. "It is my first day back and I was at my desk, talking to a youth worker for the tribe when I heard a strange noise -- it's not a sound you ever heard before.
"It was like metal grinding. I thought a hoist had dropped something on a boat," said Penn, 43. "I think the helicopter hit a power line and went down."
He looked out his office window to the southwest, saw the wreckage and got on the radio to signal the Coast Guard. He then saw a tribal member run by and fire up his skiff.
Penn jumped into the skiff with the other man, while three more men headed out in another boat, he said. Penn said a Coast Guard cutter was nearby but couldn't get to the crash scene because of a shallow jetty.
"We were looking for the orange (Coast Guard) jumpsuits," Penn said. "We ... didn't see anything at first."
Penn said they saw what appeared to be boots in the water. The men in the other fishing boat were able to get that crew member out of the water.
Within minutes, Penn said, another crew member "popped out of the water and shot off a flare."
Penn's boat pulled alongside the man. He told Penn his left arm was broken.
"We kind of spun him around so his back was facing us and used his coveralls to pull him in," Penn said.
Penn and his companion performed basic first aid on the man and kept him talking so he wouldn't lose consciousness. As they headed back to shore, they saw a Coast Guard boat heading to the scene.
They got the injured crew member to the dock, where he was treated by emergency crews before being taken to a nearby hospital.
"There was no thought about it -- just reaction," Penn said of the response by tribal members. "The Coast Guard is here for us when our boys are in harm's way."
Tedd Judd, a neuropsychologist from Bellingham, is staying at the tribe's Oceanside Resort with his wife, brother and 91-year-old mother.
Judd, 57, said he and his brother "watched the helicopter coming in from the south" and commented that it was flying awfully low. They saw items fall off the helicopter just before it crashed on the other side of the jetty.
"They definitely hit the power lines -- the power lines came down and the transformer went off," Judd said. "There were these big orange balls on the power line and now those balls are lying on the beach."
Judd watched as tribal fishermen rushed to the crash site and saw two Coast Guard Zodiacs join in the search for the crew members.
There's only one road into La Push and it was clogged with firetrucks and ambulances, he said. People lined up on the jetty to watch the rescue, but have since been cleared away. A Snohomish County sheriff's deputy, who was also on vacation at the resort, "was pressed into service" and began taking down witnesses' names, Judd said.
"Things have quieted down a bit but there are still helicopters circling overhead," he said around 1:30 p.m., noting there are a couple hundred people staying at the tribe's resort and adjacent RV park.
"The people from the tribe are very saddened and see it as a great tragedy," Judd said. "They recognize the Coast Guard is here for them when they're out fishing. It's a very unforgiving coast out here."
The Coast Guard deployed a MH 65 Dolphin and another MH 60 Jayhawk helicopter crew and response crews to the search. The MH-60 Jayhawk is a twin-engine helicopter with a crew of four, similar to the Army UH-60. Petty Officer Kip Wadlow in Washington, D.C., says it is primarily used for search-and-rescue and homeland security missions. An MH 60 Jayhawk helicopter crashed in the Utah mountains in March; the five people aboard survived.
