Local News

6 Chopper Crew Members Killed In Crash Identified

JUNCTION CITY (AP) ― Seven Oregonians have been identified as victims of the crash of a firefighting helicopter that crashed in Northern California. One was a pilot, and six were firefighters. A total of nine people died in the crash Tuesday night. The names of two have not been released.

Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass said Thursday that 54-year-old Roark Schwanenberg of Lostine in northeastern Oregon was one of two pilots and listed as missing. Federal officials said Thursday it was all but certain that the missing were dead.

The other pilot is William Coultas of Cave Junction. He was seriously injured.

 Thursday afternoon, Grayback Forestry of Merlin, Oregon, identified six members of a firefighting crew aboard the helicopter who were presumed to be dead. It said it was trying to get in touch with relatives of a seventh.

   Grayback said the six were:

   -- Shawn Blazer, 30, Medford.

   -- Scott Charleson, 25, Phoenix.

   -- Michael Hammer, 23, Grants Pass.

   -- Edrik Gomez, 19, Ashland.

   -- Bryan Rich, 29, Medford.

   -- David Steele, 19, Ashland.

   Three members of the crew survived.

Trinity County Undersheriff Eric Palmer said at a news conference in Weaverville on Thursday that families were being notified. Authorities are confirming with "fair certainty" that all nine people missing in a firefighting helicopter crash have died. 

The sheriff's office has been heading up recovery efforts at the crash site in a remote part of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The helicopter carrying 11 firefighters and two pilots went down Tuesday night shortly after lifting off. One pilot and three firefighters survived the crash.

Fire raging through rugged, dense terrain was complicating efforts Thursday to recover victims and evidence from the remote part of a Northern California forest where a firefighting helicopter crashed. Nine people were presumed dead, but four others were rescued.

Four injured people -- three firefighters and a pilot -- were flown to hospitals. They were rescued from the burning wreckage by firefighters on the ground who had been waiting for another helicopter to pick them up, said Jennifer Rabuck, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Eight firefighters and a pilot were presumed dead. The wreckage of the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter was still smoldering Thursday morning, according to Carson Helicopters Inc., which owned and operated the chopper.

It was the deadliest wildfire-fighting incident since 1994, when 14 firefighters were killed in a wildfire near Glenwood Springs, Colo. In 2003, eight Oregon firefighters returning home after fighting a blaze in Idaho were killed when their van collided with a truck outside Vale, Ore.

Lynn Ward, a spokeswoman for Trinity County Sheriff's Department, said Thursday that crews had not yet begun recovering bodies from the crash site because of the active fire in the area and the difficult terrain.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team of investigators to survey the wreckage and to begin the long process of determining what caused the helicopter to crash.

The wife of missing pilot, Roark Schwanenberg, said, "The probability of him not surviving is very great." He "lived and breathed" flying to fight fires, she said. "He felt responsible for making a difference in this world," she added.

Matthews said Grayback was notifying families of the missing firefighters and fielding calls from anxious relatives asking whether their family members were among the injured or dead.

Mike Wheelock, Grayback Forestry's President, released this statement today concerning the crash:

"I am visiting with you today as a President but mostly as a brother and a representative to my employee firefighters and their families.

We have been forever affected by the accident that occurred within the Trinity Alps earlier this week.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has helped to rescue and care for these firefighters.

The responsiveness of all agencies and medical personnel has been tremendous.

I and my team are in the process of contacting all of the affected employees' families. We appreciate everyone's support in letting us talk with them before we publicly release the names of their loved ones.

Here is what I can tell you.

This was a tragic accident that resulted in three injured and seven missing firefighters.

Two of the injured are at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento and one is at Mercy Medical Center in Redding. The families are with all the injured.

We have almost completed the process of notifying the families of the missing firefighters. I ask and plead with you to let us get through the healing process, including the notification of our families and the care of the injured and our employees.

We mobilized chaplains and incident management teams to help the families. We are also working closely with the US Forest Service and other related agencies to meet the needs of the families and affected employees.

Ten firefighters from our company were part of a 20-person organized crew that was working in steep/remote terrain on the Shasta Trinity National Forest on the Iron/Alps complex.

For four days, prior to the accident, the crew had been successfully and heroically defending a section of critical line that had to be held to avoid serious, long-term problems. The weather had changed and the firefighters were being evacuated off the mountainside. The first 10-person crew was successfully transported to base camp and the helicopter returned for the remaining part of the crew. And then the accident occurred.

Many of our crews are standing down and have returned home. They are experiencing great grief about the missing and those who are injured.

I'd like to say the entire fire community is one big family and all are affected when one is affected. The agencies, contractors and all the support people risk their lives every day fighting these fires. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers during this summer because it is still early in the fire season.

I have just visited with Rick Schroeder who is a patient here at Mercy. He is doing well. He is alert and surrounded by his family and loved ones. He wants to thank everyone who has been caring for him. He'd like some time to heal both mentally and physically and then will consider sharing his story with others.

While many of us are in our safe houses, these firefighters are risking their lives for us every day.

Once again, on behalf of Greyback Forestry and its family of firefighters, thank you for all of the concern and support you have extended to us. Please keep all of the firefighters and their families in your thoughts and prayers. "
 
The firefighters had been working at the northern end of a fire burning on more than 27 square miles in the national forest, part of a larger complex of blazes that is mostly contained. Mike Wheelock, Grayback's founder and owner, said the company had two 20-person crews working the fire, a mix of young seasonal firefighters and professionals.

Five Grayback firefighters were killed in July 2002 when a van ferrying its workers from Oregon to a wildfire in Colorado swerved off a highway and spun out of control.

"We are just right now concentrating on all the families and our employees," he said while visiting the University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where two of his employees were being treated. "We are very concerned about them because we are very tight-knit."

Grayback firefighters Michael Brown, 20, and Jonathan Frohreich, 18, as well as Carson pilot Bill Coultas, 44, were being treated at the UC Davis hospital, according to the contractor. Coultas was in critical condition, Brown was in fair condition and Frohreich was upgraded from critical to serious condition Thursday morning, according to the hospital.

Another Grayback employee, identified as Richard Schroeder, 42, was in serious condition at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, officials said.

Leora Frohreich, Jonathan Frohreich's grandmother, said that it was the young man's first work as a wildland firefighter and that he planned to attend mechanic school this fall.

He had worked on a fire near Williams, Ore., for three weeks and then was on the Shasta-Trinity fire for four days, the grandmother said in a phone interview from Medford, Ore. His crew was being flown out for some rest when the helicopter crashed, she said.

"I'm so thankful because he's just lucky to be alive," Frohreich said, adding that the firefighter's parents, sister and girlfriend had gone to the Sacramento area to be with him. "You can't be in a crash like that and not hurt."

Carson Helicopters, a Pennsylvania company whose firefighting operations are based in Grants Pass, Ore., had all 12 of its helicopters in use for firefighting in Oregon and California, Madden said. The company said the crash was the first aircraft accident while firefighting in its 50-year history.

Both pilots were Carson employees with "thousands and thousands" of hours of flight experience, and the company had upgraded the 30-year-old chopper's engine, airframe and rotors three years ago, he said.

The helicopter could carry up to 16 passengers or 1,000 gallons of water for firefighting, according to the company. The chopper was not carrying any water or flame retardant when it crashed, Madden said.

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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