Helicopter

by The Associated Press Sunday, February 7, 2010 SEWARD, Alaska -- A snowmachiner who was injured when he rode off a cliff near Seward has been rescued after spending a night outdoors in blizzard-like conditions. The Coast Guard says rescuers from the Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and other agencies reached the injured Don Feltman of Kenai after a tough, 11-mile ride on Friday. They stabilized the 49-year-old and stayed with him through the night in the Nellie-Juan Lake area.

More Alaska citizen soldiers are getting ready to go to Iraq. Twenty-six members of the Alaska Army National Guard's B Company, 2-07 Aviation Battalion will leave for pre-deployment training in Texas on Sunday. After that they will go to Iraq, where they will fly their UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters transporting troops and equipment from camp to camp. Soldiers from the company, known as the “Arctic Cowboys,” hail from across Alaska, including Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai, Bethel and Quinhagak.

Alaska State Fair visitors with no flying experience can take control of a helicopter through a challenge offered by Caster Aviation. For $25, anyone over the age of 16 can participate after watching a short safety video. The pilot will take the helicopter off the ground, and once it's stable allow you to take control. The challenge is to hover over a 40-foot area for two minutes. If you succeed, your name will be entered in a drawing for five hours of helicopter instruction. One participant says it's a whole different flying experience.

by Channel 2 News staff Thursday, July 15, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- One of the three Coast Guardsmen killed in a helicopter crash last week was laid to rest in the national cemetery at Fort Richardson Thursday. Family members and Coast Guardsmen paid their last respects to 33-year-old Aviation Maintenance Technician 2nd Class Brett Banks. He and two other crewmen were killed when their MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter went down in the waters off La Push, Wash. Banks leaves behind a wife and two children.

by Channel 2 News staff Thursday, July 22, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska's congressional delegation has sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, requesting funding to replace a lost Coast Guard helicopter. The MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter assigned to Air Station Sitka crashed earlier this month off La Push, Wash., killing three crewmen. "Alaska has more coastline than any other state in the nation. The loss of a helicopter from Air Station Sitka reduces the ability of the Coast Guard to respond to maritime emergencies and places Alaska's commercial and recreational boating public at increased risk," the delegation said in the letter.

by Mike Stark The Associated Press Thursday, March 4, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY -- Two crew members, including a Juneau man, remain in critical condition after a Coast Guard helicopter crashed in the Utah mountains. The helicopter with five aboard crashed Wednesday morning as the crew was headed back to its base in Elizabeth City, N.C., after providing security support for the Winter Olympics. University Hospital officials said Thursday that Cmdr. Patrick Shaw of Juneau, Alaska and Petty Officer 2nd Class Gina Panuzzi, of Lacey, Wash.

by The Associated Press Saturday, July 10, 2010 SITKA, Alaska -- The Coast Guard will host a memorial service Tuesday at Air Station Sitka for the crew of a helicopter that crashed off the Washington coast. The Sitka-based crew was flying home Wednesday from Astoria, Ore., when the helicopter crashed off La Push, Wash. Lt. Lance D. Leone of Ventura, Calif., survived the crash. Killed were Lt. Sean D. Krueger of Seymour, Conn., and crewmen Adam C. Hoke of Great Falls, Mont.

Denali National Park officials say two women who became disoriented Wednesday during a planned hike of Mount Healy were found by Air National Guard searchers early Thursday morning. According to park spokesperson Kris Fister, Sybill Senn of Newberry, S.C. and Liza Weeks of Bellingham, Wash., both 22, were tired but uninjured when a Pavehawk helicopter found them at about 2:30 a.m. approximately five miles north of the mountain. The women, both seasonal employees at the McKinley Chalets Resort in the Nenana Canyon outside the Park, were last seen at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Bison Gulch trailhead on the Parks Highway, after telling friends they planned to hike the mountain.

by Christine Kim Friday, July 9, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Coast Guard says two of the four major pieces of a Coast Guard helicopter that crashed off La Push, Wash. Wednesday were recovered Friday morning, but fog in the area is temporarily suspending further salvage operations. Three of the four Sitka-based crewmen who were aboard the helicopter were killed in the crash near Washington's James Island. Witnesses say they saw the low-flying chopper hit power lines in the area.

U.S. Coast Guard aircraft have safely found a 31-foot sailing vessel near Sitka and hoisted its sole occupant aboard a helicopter Tuesday, hours after its emergency transmitter began broadcasting. According to a statement from Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis, the Etak's 406 MHz emergency position indicating radio beacon began to transmit at about 11 a.m., from a position roughly 200 miles northwest of Sitka. Rory Williams was subsequently rescued from the vessel.

Alaska State Troopers say a veteran pilot, a Talkeetna-based trooper and a rescued snowmachiner died when an AST helicopter crashed overnight Saturday during a search-and-rescue mission near Talkeetna. In a somber Monday press conference held at AST headquarters on Tudor Road in Anchorage, Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner tentatively identified the dead as 55-year-old Anchorage-based pilot Mel Nading, 40-year-old trooper Tage Toll and 56-year-old Talkeetna man Carl Ober.

A helicopter pilot was rescued Saturday morning after he crashed near Beluga, according to the Alaska National Guard. Major Guy Hayes says the crash happened near the Beluga power plant. The A-Star helicopter pilot called 911 at 10:30 a.m. and and rescuers arrived at 12:30 p.m. Maj. Hayes says because of the tall pine trees in the area they had to use a hoist to get the pilot out, who they believed had broken his hip.  It took 20 minutes to safely hoist him from the wreckage and he was taken to Providence Hospital for treatment.

The U.S. Coast Guard says five fishermen were rescued from an island south of Kodiak early Thursday morning after their 58-foot-long fishing vessel struck a rock and started taking on water. According to Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley, the crew of the Kodiak Isle contacted watchstanders just after midnight Thursday. They then donned survival suits and abandoned ship in a life raft that drifted ashore on Sitkinak Island, as the Coast Guard issued an urgent marine information broadcast and sent an MH-60 Jawhawk helicopter to the area.

  The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a helicopter crash Tuesday  evening at Merrill Field in Anchorage.    According to NTSB Spokesperson Clint Johnson the accident happened around 6:15pm during a training flight.    Johnson said there were two people on board the R-22 helicopter operated by Alyeska Helicopters when it went down.    He says the aircraft rolled over on touchdown and received substantial damage but no one was injured.    The reason for the crash is not yet known - it is currently under investigation.

A helicopter that crashed at a remote site of the Pogo Mine near Delta Junction, killing its pilot Aug. 7, had landed on a log platform that may have had a loose log before it pitched and rolled downhill, according to a witness. A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report says the McDonnell Douglas MD 600N, flown by 63-year-old pilot James Hopper of Missouri, was being operated by Aurora Aviation Services in Delta Junction. A witness told investigators he radioed to request that Hopper pick him up at about 4:30 p.m. from a landing platform made of interlaced logs nailed together with spikes, and was kneeling near the platform when the chopper landed.

Two state geologists from Fairbanks were rescued Monday afternoon by helicopter near Whittier, according to Alaska State Troopers. On Saturday evening, the Department of Natural Resources contacted the Soldotna Trooper Dispatch saying 52-year-old Katharine Bull and 48-year-old Robert Gillis were dropped off at separate locations in the mountains near Whittier. DNR told troopers that the geologists were dropped that morning and were supposed to work for a couple of hours, however the weather reportedly turned bad. DNR said Bull and Gillis would stay overnight, and the workers would be picked up the next day weather permitting.

A helicopter crash near Delta Junction Tuesday killed a 63-year-old Missouri man, according to Alaska State Troopers and the National Transportation Safety Board. The crash, involving a McDonnell Douglas 600N helicopter owned by Aurora Aviation with only pilot James Hopper on board, occurred at a remote site of the Pogo gold mine about 5 p.m. Tuesday. AST spokesperson Beth Ipsen said Wednesday that Hopper was en route to pick up miners at the remote site when his chopper crashed into the side of a hill and rolled a considerable distance.

A small helicopter had to make a hard landing near Wainwright Tuesday morning, causing minor injuries to its pilot according to the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB investigator Chris Shaver says the Robinson R-44 helicopter was hauling cargo as a longline sling load in the Wainwright area when the engine reportedly lost power and the pilot, the R-44's sole occupant, had to auto-rotate the chopper down to the ground. The pilot suffered only minor injuries, which Shaver said included a cut on the head.

Three climbers were rescued by helicopter from Mount McKinley Thursday, two of whom were unable to walk after sustaining leg injuries in an avalanche Sunday. Denali National Park officials say an A-Star B3 helicopter contracted by the park picked up Michael Pillegaard, 26, Mads Knudsen, 30, and Nicolai Bo Silver, 26, from the mountain's 17,200-foot high camp. The trio had left the camp Sunday to try and summit the mountain by an alternate route along the Autobahn, a slope leading from the high camp to Denali Pass.