LAPUSH — A Coast Guard helicopter from Astoria, Ore., en route to Alaska went down in the water at about 9:45 a.m. today near James Island after clipping marked power lines that extends from the island to LaPush, the Coast Guard reported today.
Four men were on board, Cmdr. Kevin Gavin of Coast Guard/Group Air Station Port Angeles said.
The Coast Guard just announced that three have died. The fourth has been taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with non-life-threatening injuries, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
Names are being withheld until notification of family members, but all four were stationed at the Coast Guard station in Sitka, Alaska.
Coast Guard personnel from Port Angeles and Coast Guard boat crews stationed in LaPush responded to the incident, Gavin said.
The Coast Guard said the helicopter, an MH-60 Jayhawk from Sitka, had taken off from Astoria.
There is a Coast Guard station near LaPush with a helicopter pad, so it’s possible the crew was attempting to land there. That has not been confirmed. A Coast Guard spokesman said the Jayhawk was not capable of traveling from Astoria to Sitka on one tankload of fuel.
The Coast Guard-maintained power lines — considered low-voltage because none carries more than 200 volts — extended from a tower near the Quillayute River mouth diagonally to the top of James Island. They are marked with giant ball-like devices to help aviators see them.
The power lines were described as lying on the beach.
A Clallam PUD spokesman said the lines have been deactivated.
PDN staff writer Tom Callis, at the scene, sends this account:
Tribal members and beachgoers enjoying the sunny, warm day, saw the
incident happen nearly overhead.
Witnesses said the helicopter was coming in fast and low, and banked
sharply as a last-second attempt to avoid the power lines.
Quileute tribal member Rio Jaime was working at the tribal school when
saw the helicopter clip the power lines with its tail, which sent it
spinning down into the water.
“It took us a little bit to realize that really happened,” he said.
“It was like in the movies.”
Annemieke Van Berkel, of Holland, said she saw debris falling from the
helicopter as it flew into the power lines.
Unable to help, Van Berkel, who was visiting LaPush on a family
vacation, said she felt powerless as she witnessed the crash from the beach.
“I was shocked,” she added.
“You want to think that they are indestructible.”
After seeing the helicopter slam into the water just outside the
Quileute Marina, Harbormaster Darryl Penn and four other fishermen
jumped into two skiffs and headed for the sinking aircraft.
“You don’t think do I go or not, you just go,” Penn said.
“They are alwasy here for us.”
On arrival, they quickly scanned the water and saw one man in the water.
Then another shot a flare not far from Penn’s boat.
Penn and another fisherman pulled that man into their boat, while the
second boat rescued the other.
A third man was also rescued by the fishermen.
None was in good condition.
“He was going into shock,” Penn said of the man he pulled from the water.
After returing to shore, tribal members hastily performed CPR while
waiting for the ambulances to make their 15-20 minute-trek to the
Quielute Reservation.
Lonnie Foster, tribal vice chairman, was one of them.
Two of men rescued were unconscious; one man’s legs were mangled
by the crash, he said.
“I’ve never seen anyone in that kind of condition before,” Foster said.
“To see this here in our little community is pretty devastating.”
