Helicopter was doomed from liftoff, witnesses say

Witnesses to the deadly helicopter crash in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest said the aircraft appeared to be struggling from the moment it took off with 13 occupants aboard, a federal official said Friday.

“The liftoff was slower than normal,” said Kitty Higgins, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. “The forward motion of the helicopter was slower than normal. The nose of the helicopter struck a tree, and there were several rotor strikes of trees that followed.”

The Sikorsky S-61 rose only about 45 or 50 feet, Higgins said at a media briefing here three days after the accident, which killed nine. The helicopter ended up on its left side about 150 yards from the remote takeoff site and “quickly filled with very dense, thick black smoke.”

Three of those aboard were able to flee the helicopter, and a fourth was dragged from the wreckage before it burst into flames. Photos of the site show not much more than a blackened outline of the craft with a portion of the tail remaining.

But Higgins said investigators had recovered the cockpit voice recorder, which was in “better condition than we hoped, given the conditions at the crash site.”

It is unclear, however, how much useful information the machine can provide. The recorder is en route to the safety board’s labs in Washington, D.C. Investigators also believe that they will be able to retrieve engines and rotor blades from the wreckage.

Higgins also said that federal authorities worked with the coroners’ offices in Shasta and Trinity counties Friday to remove the remains of the nine who died in the crash, but “that will be a very difficult job.”

The U.S. Forest Service said Friday that an agency check pilot was on board the helicopter when it crashed and that he was unaccounted for and believed dead. Officials identified him as Jim Ramage, 63, who was based in Redding. A check pilot rides along on an aircraft to oversee its pilot.

The final contract firefighter who died in the crash was identified Friday as Steven Renno, 21, of Cave Junction, Ore. His relatives were attending a family reunion at an Oregon campground and were not located until Thursday night, said Mike Wheelock, president of Merlin, Ore.-based Grayback Forestry.

The 10 Grayback firefighters on the helicopter, three of whom survived, were part of a 20-person crew. The rest of the crew was waiting to be shuttled to base camp and watched as the aircraft plummeted. They have been debriefed by Forest Service counselors and are home in Oregon, where they met with company chaplains.

“These are tight-knit people that have worked together, lived together, cried together,” Wheelock said. “This is the additional 10. They’re very concerned about their comrades and the injured” and the dead.

Richard Schroeder, 42, survived the crash and was released from Mercy Medical Center here Friday. Although he was in pain and could barely speak because of the stitches in his swollen lower lip, Schroeder was wheeled down to the hospital lobby to thank everyone who helped him and to give his condolences to the families of the dead.

“My prayers will be with them throughout the next days and months,” Schroeder said in a statement that was read by Sarah DeForest, the registered nurse who cared for him this week, as Wheelock looked on. “The past few days have been very traumatic for me and so many of my colleagues and their families.”

Said Schroeder’s tearful mother, Linda Parks of Medford, Ore., as she prepared to take him home: “I think God was with him, with all the ones that did survive. It was not his time to go.”

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maria.laganga@latimes.com