Aug 10, 2008 3:01 pm US/Pacific
Pilot In Helicopter Crash Still Fighting For Life
WEAVERVILLE (AP) ―
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The scene of a deadly firefighting helicopter crash is shown in this aerial photo in Trinity County near Junction City.
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.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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