Erin crashed about 9:15pm on September 29,2005. No one survived. Erin was found by the Coast Guard the next day in Puget Sound. How long did she survive her injuries, not more than minutes they said. I know Steve, Erin and Lois did everything possible to save themselves on that nine minute flight. Steve was a very experienced pilot, both nurses would be doing what he needed them to do.
No salvage effort was made until Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, got the Navy involved. The Navy was unable to recover enough of the helicopter to determine the cause of their crash. Steve was recovered eight days after the crash, Lois was never found.
The medical community lost three wonderful people that day. We have come to know other families of crews that have been lost. We all suffer the loss of exceptional people.
The names on the list to your left are crews that have died. All but five of the names from the 1970's are missing, some of the 1980's and a few of the 1990's. If anyone can add a name to the list of the missing, please email elrsmom@hotmail.com with the name of the crew member and date of the crash. This blog stands as a memorial to all crews. I hope someday the flight community will provide a fitting memorial for all of these, the lost.
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Thanks for this memorial blog. The fifteenth anniversary of my father's death is coming up. I did a google search trying to find some old articles and your blog came up. His name is Donald MacIntyre. He was killed when the medivac flight he was flight nurse/paramedic on crashed in the ocean off of Portland Maine in 1993. It is good to know that there are still efforts underway to make this important and life-saving service safer for both the crews and the patients. I personally think one part of this should be not leaving such a vital public service in the hands of private companies that are driven to cut corners by the need to be profitable. I'm absolutely positive this dynamic led to the crash that killed my father, another medic, and a burn patient.
Thanks,
Micum MacIntyre
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