Clues Sought in Deadly Washington State Medevac Crash

Police, the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board searched for debris, bodies and answers yesterday after a medical-transport helicopter crashed into the water about a mile off the coast in north Edmonds late Thursday night.

The pilot, 59-year-old Stephen Smith of Whidbey Island, and two nurses, Erin Reed, 48, and Lois Suzuki, 47, both of Seattle, are presumed dead, though only one body had been recovered as of yesterday and had not been identified, investigators said.

The helicopter, a twin-engine A109/Mark II operated and staffed by Airlift Northwest, was flying back to its base in Arlington after transporting a critically ill 62-year-old man from Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to NTSB and Airlift Northwest officials.

The helicopter was not carrying a patient when it crashed.

Georgia Struhsaker, the NTSB senior investigator in charge, wouldn't speculate about the cause of the crash, but said her agency would look at factors that may have contributed, such as weather, pilot and nurse records, and records for the helicopter itself.

Those in the area at the time of the crash reported wind, rain and heavy fog. Some said it sounded like the helicopter was having engine trouble.

"At this point we're just beginning, and we're just gathering facts," Struhsaker said at a news conference in Edmonds.

The helicopter had left Cascade Valley Hospital with the patient at 7:54 p.m. and arrived at Harborview at 8:14 p.m. The helicopter left Harborview about 9:04 p.m., and dispatchers with Airlift Northwest spoke with Smith about 9:14 p.m., said Dr. David Baker, Harborview's acting emergency-services medical director and acting medical director for Airlift Northwest.

But when dispatchers tried to contact Smith 10 minutes later, they couldn't get through. The NTSB said it was unable to find a distress call from the helicopter.

About 9:15 p.m., Edmonds residents called 911 and reported that they had heard a helicopter, followed by a loud boom and silence, Edmonds police reported.

About 1:30 a.m. yesterday, the Coast Guard located a small debris field about one mile out from Browns Bay in north Edmonds.

Resident Dana Graves said she heard the crash but saw only thick fog when she looked out her window.

"I was expecting to see something, something coming out of the sky," she said. But "it was just pitch black, total fog."

Weather suspected

Detective Scott Anderson, spokesman for Bainbridge Island police, which responded to the crash with its Marine Patrol Unit, suspected gusty, rainy weather may have played a role in the crash. Winds up to 35 miles an hour buffeted the Edmonds area Thursday night, he said.

"It was not good weather for helicopters. It was not good weather for putting a search plane in the air," Anderson said.

The King County Sheriff's Office was asked to send its Guardian One helicopter to the crash site, but the pilot turned back above Interbay, near Magnolia, because of the low cloud cover, said Travis DeFries, spokesman for the sheriff. Struhsaker said the Coast Guard will use side-scan sonar equipment to help locate remains that may be under 250 to 400 feet of water. The equipment creates a picture of the seafloor and will hopefully let them see the helicopter without diving, Struhsaker said.

If portions of the helicopter are found underwater, the NTSB plans to retrieve them, said Struhsaker.

Edmonds police are asking beachgoers in the area not to touch any parts they may find. Instead, they are asked to report them to authorities.

Crew described

Officials of Seattle-based Airlift Northwest, which operates a fleet of emergency-transport helicopters and airplanes in the state and Alaska, shared stories of the three involved in the crash at a news conference yesterday afternoon.

Smith had logged more than 8,500 flight hours with Airlift Northwest. A former Marine Corps pilot and a Vietnam veteran, he lived on Whidbey Island with his wife. They have four children.

Smith's "dedication not only to flying, but to air medical flying was renowned throughout the country," said Larry Pictropaulo, president of CJSystems Aviation, which owns the four helicopters and four airplanes used by Airlift Northwest.

In 2002, Smith was critically injured when an Airlift Northwest helicopter he piloted lost engine power and crashed near the Cascade mountain town of Baring. Smith had been forced to land the night before because of snowy weather, and when he attempted to take off the next morning, snow sucked into the engines caused them to flame out. The chopper fell about 200 feet.

Pictropaulo credited Smith for landing the helicopter in that incident despite losing both engines.

"As a result of Steve's skills, he survived," he said.

Colleagues described Reed as "totally dedicated to patients." She grew up in California and worked as a fire-department medic before joining Airlift Northwest in May 1997.

At Harborview, she was known for her outspoken manner and sense of humor.

"As a young doctor, I wouldn't say I was intimidated by her, but I quickly learned that if I wanted to do things right, I should listen to her," said Baker, of Airlift Northwest. He called her death "impossibly difficult" to absorb.

Suzuki also grew up in California and worked as a traveling pediatric nurse "in all the major pediatric hospitals" in the nation for many years before joining Airlift Northwest in 1998, said Deb Sampson, chief flight nurse for Airlift Northwest. Suzuki loved hiking and biking and viewed her job as "the latest and greatest adventure," Sampson said.

"She was on the go all the time. She was a bundle of energy and always smiling," Sampson said.

Reed and Suzuki both lived in Seattle and were single.

There have been three Airlift Northwest helicopter crashes since 1995, including Thursday's crash. In September of that year, a similar helicopter crashed in the water off Bainbridge Island, killing two nurses and a pilot. In that crash, two wrongful-death suits against the helicopter's manufacturer, Agusta Aerospace, were settled midtrial for $10 million. The other crash was in 2002, when Smith's helicopter crashed near Baring.

Terry Williams, a spokesman for the NTSB in Washington, D.C., said there have been 53 crashes of emergency-medical helicopters between January 2002 and January 2003. Air-medical companies transport about 350,000 patients by helicopter every year, according to the Association of Air Medical Services.

Brian Alexander: 425-745-7845 or balexander@seattletimes.com