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Arizona helicopter-crash rescue: 'That’s when we realized we had a survivor'

With night-vision goggles, the search crew quickly spotted the wreckage. Then they spotted something else: a tiny flash of light.

Amy B Wang
The Republic | azcentral.com
Angela Rose, an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper paramedic, helped rescue the survivor of a medical-helicopter crash Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in the Superstition Mountains outside of Apache Junction.

The call from the dispatch center came in around 8:10 p.m. on Tuesday.

A medical evacuation helicopter and its crew, “Native Air 5,” were missing and had presumably crashed. The helicopter had taken off from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport earlier in the evening and had been scheduled to arrive in Globe over 2½ hours ago. Since then, no one had heard anything from the three people on board: a pilot, flight nurse and paramedic.

Scott Clifton, an air-rescue pilot for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, took off in his own helicopter, along with Angela Rose, a DPS trooper paramedic. As they sped toward the general vicinity of the presumed crash, they received another call, this time with coordinates.  A private aircraft in the area had since confirmed what everyone had feared: A chopper was down in the Superstition Mountains.

Outside, conditions were clear but it was a moonless night, pitch black. It also was one of the coldest nights of the year in the Phoenix area, with a freeze warning in effect across the Valley. Using night-vision goggles, it took Clifton a mere 30 seconds to spot the actual crash site in the unforgiving terrain.

“It was very overwhelming to see that, to see that crash, to see how destroyed the helicopter was,” Clifton said in a DPS video issued Thursday.

The mountainside was extremely steep, covered densely with cactus and trees. There would be no safe place to land nearby, he thought.

Clifton and Rose then spotted a tiny flash of light, intensified by their night-vision goggles.

“We didn't know initially what it is,” Clifton said. “Maybe it was just a battery.”

The light began waving back and forth.

“That’s when we realized we had a survivor.”

Timeline: Fatal air-ambulance helicopter crash outside of Apache Junction

'Rescue mode'

Clifton and Rose went immediately into “rescue mode,” scanning the area for any suitable place the helicopter could land. There was a spot about one-fourth mile from the crash site, but they estimated it would take far too long for Rose to hike to the scene.

The only place closer was a large rock outcropping, about 20 yards away from the downed helicopter. It was nowhere near big enough to land a chopper, but it would have to do.

“We knew that we would not be able to put skids down on it,” Rose said . “But I was comfortable doing a hover ingress.”

Rose spoke with The Arizona Republic on Thursday evening after providing her account on DPS video.

With the helicopter hovering about one foot off of the mountain, Rose jumped out and began making her way to the crash scene, crawling over cactus and through thorn bushes. Clifton told her later that as soon as she landed, he lost visual of her.

Scott Clifton, an air-rescue pilot for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, helped locate the survivor of a crash in the Superstition Mountains on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015

Rose finally got to the crash scene and realized only one person had survived.

“The survivor was very cold, scared and upset, obviously. He had lost his friends,” she said, choking back tears as she recounted the rescue two days later. “He was in a great deal of pain. He couldn’t move.”

The temperatures on the mountain had plunged into the 20s. The survivor was screaming and shivering, covered in snow and jet fuel that was still leaking from the downed helicopter. Rose covered him in a blanket she had brought along, then gave him her own coat and gloves.

“Relax,” she told him. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

Helicopter crash victims retrieved from Superstitions

'Now I'm worried'

About a quarter-mile away, AirEvac had managed to land, and a nurse and medic were hiking to the crash site, as well. Under normal circumstances, Rose would have discouraged them from doing so: “Now I'm worried about getting three people out of there instead of one."

But on Tuesday night, Rose was relieved to see them. She had dropped her medical bag while crawling through the thorny mountainside terrain earlier and knew they would have supplies.

Together, the three of them assessed the situation. Their priority had to be to extract the survivor from the scene. At 5,000-feet elevation and with below-freezing temperatures, they knew he could not spend the night outside. But he was immobile and in no condition to be moved even 20 yards.

In addition, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office wanted to send people up that evening to secure the scene, Rose said, but she knew it was still a hazardous situation on the mountain. Pieces of the downed helicopter were strewn around a large area. Its fuselage was on its side, leaking fuel and situated in a way that it was not stable. Rose advised Pinal County to wait until the morning to secure the scene and retrieve the bodies of the two other victims. It was a difficult decision, she said.

“As much as we hate to leave people out there unattended overnight, just for the safety of everyone, we chose to come back at first light,” she said.

Unbeknownst to them, someone had called an Air Force Pararescue team to the crash site. Rose couldn’t remember exactly when the team arrived, but suddenly two “PJs” -- pararescuers -- lowered a Stokes basket to the ground. Together, they carefully loaded the survivor into the steel-framed stretcher. The medic and nurse who had hiked to the scene accompanied him to the hospital.

Rose watched as they were lifted into the air.

“Had the Air Force not been available, we would not be able to get him out that night,” Rose said. “Once I saw him being hoisted, he was in the aircraft, I was confident -- well, hopeful -- he would make it.”

She crawled back through the thorns and the harsh terrain to the large rock where Clifton’s helicopter was waiting. They would return several hours later, “at first light” Wednesday morning, to retrieve the bodies of the two victims.

Medical-helicopter crash survivor signaled rescuers to site near Apache Junction

'Like you’re losing part of your family'

Though it is still unclear what caused the crash, details emerging from the scene Tuesday night paint a picture of a harrowing situation. The lone survivor of the crash was identified as Native Air Ambulance medic Derek Boehm, 38, of Gilbert. On Wednesday, authorities said he had worked to save one of his dying colleagues before flagging down emergency personnel by waving his flashlight.

The crash killed pilot David Schneider, 51, of Gilbert, and flight nurse Chad Frary, 38, of Mesa, according to the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. The National Transportation Security Board is investigating what caused the crash, a process that usually takes months.

After the rescue, the surreal act of rescuing “one of our own” began to sink in for Rose.

“It’s kind of like you’re losing part of your family,” she said. The emergency medical services community, particularly those in air rescue, is a very tight-knit group, she added.

Rose didn’t know why, but she found herself logging into Facebook to look up those who had been on board.

“I’ve seen them before,” she said Thursday, her voice shaking. “I recognized them.”

Rose had met the medic a couple of times and knew she had seen the nurse before. She typed in his name. His profile came up, and she began to cry.

“You don’t think about that stuff when you’re there and working,” she said. “After the fact, I made the mistake of looking up the deceased on Facebook and I saw he had a child. It hits home. It's a small community, what we do. It's a reality check."

'We had 3 minutes to save their lives'