KAMAS, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Rescue crews reached a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter that crashed Wednesday morning in remote Utah mountains. The helicopter went down as its crew was returning to its home base after providing security for the Olympics in
Vancouver.
The location of the crash was located about 20 miles north of the Silver Meadow Basin near Hidden Lake. Rescue crews set up a command center near Kamas at Soapstone Basin.
Buzz Burgener of the Wasatch County Search and Rescue team says 5 people were on board. "The helicopter went down. They tried to hover and went down because the air was too thin," said Burgener, who said one of the passengers on board sent a text message to a friend, and that friend notified authorities.
Burgener said the pilot reported had difficulty while trying to fly under a low ceiling and that the thin air caused the helicopter to lose altitude.
Sgt. Jeremy Hale of the Wasatch County sheriff's department said a second Coast Guard helicopter in the area landed near the crash site and airlifted two victims to the University of Utah Medical Center.
Wasatch County Sheriff Todd Bonner said two people, a man and a woman, were in critical condition. Another was flown to a local hospital with minor injuries
No fatalities were reported. "It was a pretty bad sight," said Burgener. "They're fortunate to get out of it."
Bonner said one of the passengers had his leg shattered by a tree limb as the helicopter went down.
The female passenger had hip and lower body injuries as well.
The crashed helicopter is known as a "Jayhawk" or basically the same aircraft as a military "Blackhawk."
One of the survivors who was able to walk away from the crash spoke with ABC 4 News, but refused to comment on his crew mate's injuries.
