Probe to check out weather, other factors as cause of tragedy

Low visibility and bad weather may have been contributing factors in a Flight for Life helicopter crash Saturday night near Indian Springs that killed the three crew members aboard.

However, a spokewoman for Valley Hospital, which operates the service, said it was too early to speculate about the weather's role in the tragedy.

"Anytime there are clouds on (Mount Charleston), then pilots go around," Pam Augusta said.

Pilot James Bond Jr., 42, and flight nurses Kathy Batterman, 44, and Leroy Shelton, 37, died in the crash.

Clouds on Saturday caused the helicopter to fly the circuitous route around the mountain by way of Indian Springs.

Augusta said she didn't know what the weather conditions were at the crash site. The National Weather Service reported snow and low clouds Saturday night at Desert Springs, 15 miles north of Indian Springs, during the hours Lifeguard 2 was in the air.

The weather is one factor that the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will consider in its investigation, along with mechanical problems and human error, NTSB investigator Bob Crispin said.

"We photographed and documented the wreckage and accounted for all the critical parts of the aircraft," Crispin said. "The recovered parts will be taken to Phoenix, where we will conduct a more detailed investigation."

The B0-105 helicopter, known as Lifeguard 2, was returning to its home base in Pahrump when it crashed into the desert floor just before midnight Saturday about a mile southwest of Indian Springs.

All that remained of the craft was a twisted piece of its tail and small pieces of debris scattered across 150 yards of desert.

"It looks like it was going pretty fast and hit at a steep angle," Metro Police Search and Rescue Sgt. Clint Bassett said. "The left skid hit first and then the rotor hit and it just kept rolling. No one had much time to feel anything."

The aircraft went down in an approximately 2-mile-wide stretch of desert between U.S. 95 and the foothills of the Spring Mountains about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The crash site was about 150 yards from power lines that run along the south side of U.S. 95 and Indian Springs. Across U.S. 95 to the north is the Nellis Air Force Range.

Las Vegas firefighter Travis Holdaway was in Indian Springs visiting his parents Saturday night when he heard the helicopter fly overhead about 11:15 p.m.

"I went outside and I saw it flying real low, about 200 feet off the ground," Holdaway said. "It wasn't snowing outside, but there was some light rain, fog and low clouds. It was hard to see on the ground, so I can't imagine what it was like in the air.

"It must have went down just a few seconds later."

Investigators arrived at the site about 9 a.m. Sunday and began looking through what remained of the aircraft. Flight for Life pilots were also searching the debris for personal items to return to their friends' families.

Bond, Batterman and Shelton had completed a routine transport of a patient to Valley Hospital from Pahrump and were returning to Pahrump when they crashed.

Bond was born in Bulgaria and was trained as a fighter pilot before coming to the United States in 1986 and joining Flight for Life in June 1998.

In Batterman, the valley lost one of the originators of Flight for Life, which began in 1980.

"We always knew the danger was there," Kathy's husband Kurt said. "She lived and breathed Flight for Life. She was the program. Just ask anyone in the valley."

Batterman was featured on the national television program "American Detectives" in an episode titled "Shields of Honor" for her work as a flight nurse. Batterman leaves behind a 14-year-old son, Christopher and a 9-year-old daughter, Jennifer.

Shelton had been an employee at Valley for 13 years in the cardiac laboratory, but had just joined Flight for Life. He loved adventure, his wife Lori Shelton said, skydiving even after breaking his back in the sport.

The couple had celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday.

"He really, really wanted this job," Shelton said of her husband. "It was really important to him, and he liked helping people. He liked the adrenaline, but he stayed calm under pressure.

"He was an incredible man and an incredible husband."

Flight for Life crews use two routes to and from Pahrump. One is to go over the mountains near Red Rock Canyon, and the other, taken by Lifeguard 2, is to follow U.S. 95 to Indian Springs before heading west to Pahrump.

Flight for Life pilots are not required to file flight plans with the FAA, but they are required to check in with American Medical Response dispatchers every 15 minutes while in flight.

At 11:30 p.m. Saturday the crew of Lifeguard 2 failed to make radio contact, and Metro Search and Rescue was called to locate the missing aircraft. About 2 a.m. the crash site was discovered.

Investigators from Metro Aviation, the company that owns and operates Valley's three Flight for Life helicopters, were also at the crash site. A Valley spokeswoman said that a meeting will be held with Metro Aviation to determine how and when Lifeguard 2 will be replaced.

The mood at Valley Hospital's emergency room Sunday morning was somber as the staff tried to work through its grief.

"It's affected everybody," said Judith Hendricks, administrative supervisor at Valley, one of three supervisors called in to help in the emergency room after the crash. She noted that the staff was keeping busy partly as a way to deal with their grief. "Nurses work through tragedy."

Local fire departments flew flags at half-staff Sunday today, and firefighters put black tape on their badges to remember the loss.

At AMR, supervisors were called in Saturday night to relieve a crew that was given the choice of going home or receiving counseling. One crew member reflected on the loss of a member of the rescue family.

"The valley is a very close-knit community, so these things hit hard," Andy Dunleavy said. "We know that there are dangers in this job, but there are dangers in everything you do."

Flight for Life uses twin-engine helicopters to transport patients from Pahrump, Primm, Las Vegas and the surrounding area. The program includes nine pilots and 12 flight nurses, and has made more than 15,000 flights since its inception in 1980.

The last fatal crash of a Flight for Life helicopter was in 1983, when an aircraft went down near Black Mountain in Henderson. A pilot, flight nurse and paramedic were killed in that crash.

Staff writers Jerry Fink and Jean Reid Norman contributed to this report.

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