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Memorial set for crew in fatal helicopter crash

Page Last Updated: Monday November 16, 2009 8:47am PST

The wreckage of the helicopter that crashed Saturday.

Later this week the town of Susanville will remember the lives of three medical personnel who died in a medical helicopter crash on Saturday.

The Mountain Lifeflight helicopter crashed early Saturday morning about 30 miles north of Reno.
Investigators say it was returning to Susanville after dropping off a patient at a Reno hospital.

All three people on board: The pilot, the flight nurse and the paramedic died in the crash.
The memorial service for the crew is set for this Friday, November 20 at 1 p.m. at the Mountain Lifeflight hangar of the Susanville Municipal Airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the incident.

Mountain LifeFlight, the company that operated the helicopter, says the pilot was 39-year-old James Bradshaw, the chief flight nurse was 40-year-old Clinton Reger, and the chief flight paramedic was 37-year-old Christopher Ritz. Another flight nurse with the company told News 4 Reger and Ritz were from the Susanville area. There were no patients on board.

The medical helicopter crashed around 2 a.m. about five miles north of Hallelujah Junction on Highway 395. Investigators say the crew had just dropped a patient off at a Reno hospital and was flying back to its home base in Susanville.

"They fly people and save their lives all the time and then it looks like we've lost three in one crash," said Steve Warren Lassen County Sheriff/Coroner.

Emergency crews and investigators were on scene throughout the day on Saturday searching the hillside and open field for pieces of the helicopter.

"We had a witness that saw them going along the highway. [They] appeared to be going straight and level and all of a sudden they dropped down vertically, rapidly," NTSB investigator Howard Plagens said.

Plagens said the pilot did send out a distress call before the crash and said they were going down.

Investigators said they would be on scene looking for clues in the wreckage during the weekend. They will also look at other factors like weather, and will look into the records of the pilot and the helicopter for more information.

"It did burn. It did fragment highly, so it's going to take a lot of work to look at different components and see what they tell us," Plagens said.

Warren says the crash will be difficult for the Susanville community because many people knew the crew on board, including himself.

"Every one of the deputies out there right now, every one of them, knew these people and worked side by side with them," Warren said.

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COMMENTS

MISSY B.

November 16, 2009 5:28pm PST

Mark as Offensive

My heart breaks for all of the people affected by this horrible accident. The Mountain Lifeflight pilot and my friend, Jim Bradshaw ("Browski") was supremely loved and adored by friends down here in San Francisco. There aren't enough words to describe how much we all will miss him and how heartbroken we are that our time is up with our brilliant, and brilliantly funny friend.

Thank you so much to Mr Plagans and the other investigators for doing this difficult work.. I just really hope that we'll be able to learn what happened.