Three killed in crash of medical evacuation chopper

Sunday, April 4, 1999 | 9:48 a.m.

The Euro BO-105 was returning to its base in Pahrump when it was reported down at about 12:10 a.m., said Jerry Acosta, a duty officer with the Federal Aviation Administration in Los Angeles.

The helicopter had dropped off a patient at Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas and was returning to base when the crew failed to make a routine 15-minute check-in at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, hospital spokeswoman Rebecca Blair said.

After repeated attempts to contact the crew failed, search and rescue authorities were called.

The crash site is about a mile southeast of here, or 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"It's a pretty devastating scene," said Lt. Richard Alba, spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The cause of the crash was under investigation by officials from the National Transportation Safety Board. Alba said it was cold and snowing at the time.

The crash killed pilot James Bond Jr., and flight nurses Kathy Batterman and Leroy Shelton, said Ms. Blair, whose hospital operates the Flight for Life air ambulance program.

Bond was born in Bulgaria and trained overseas as a fighter pilot and helicopter pilot. He came to the United States in 1986 and joined Flight for Life last June, the hospital said.

Batterman began her career at Valley Hospital in June 1981 and was one of the original Flight for Life crew members. Shelton joined the hospital in 1996, working in the cardiovascular laboratory, and only recently joined Flight for Life, according to the hospital.

The twin-engine Flight for Life helicopters transport ill and injured patients and operates in portions of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and California. More than 15,000 flights have been made since the program began in 1980.

The Flight for Life team includes nine pilots and 12 nurses.

The last fatal crash involving a Flight for Life helicopter occurred in 1983, when three crew members were killed, Ms. Blair said.