Copter Pulls Woman From River : Rescue: A Fullerton College student is clinging to life after she, her brother and a friend toppled out of their raft on the rain-swollen Santa Ana River.

A 20-year-old Fullerton College student, thrown from an inflatable raft into the rain-swollen waters of the Santa Ana River, was clinging to life late Friday after being plucked from the waterway in a dramatic helicopter rescue.

The student, identified by police as Bonnie Davis of Orange, was flown by helicopter to UCI Medical Center, where she was in very critical condition.

Two men who were rafting with Davis made it to shore. They were treated at Kaiser Permanente Hospital-Orange County in Anaheim and later released. Hospital officials identified them as Todd Benkert, 20, of Anaheim and Gary Davis, 21, also of Anaheim. Gary Davis and Bonnie Davis are brother and sister.

The three young people had apparently put the raft in at the Yorba Regional Park and attempted to run the fast-moving water to Lakeview Avenue, not realizing that the river contains several spillways. The spillways are intended to keep debris from flowing down the river, and they create dangerous currents.

“When the raft reached the spillway, they toppled,” said Jonathan Wilkes, lead fire dispatcher for the Anaheim Fire Department. “It’s concrete and drops off into an extremely violent current.”

Fire Department Battalion Chief Bob Young agreed.

“What someone traveling on a raft probably wouldn’t know is that the spillway creates an eddy current that will suck you right under,” Young said. “And that’s exactly what happened here.”

The raft submerged a half-mile west of where Imperial Highway crosses the river, throwing all three boaters into the water. The two men managed to make it to one of the river banks, and one of them called for help, officials said.

Anaheim police helicopters, as well as fire and paramedic units, were dispatched to the area at 6:52 p.m., Young said. Ten fire units were sent downstream to search for the raft and woman.

But spotting Davis at night in the muddy brown water proved difficult, and it was not until about 8 p.m. that the pilots of Angel 1, an Anaheim police helicopter, spied the raft bobbing near the Riverside Freeway overcrossing.

By then the raft had floated approximately a mile and a half downstream from where it capsized, propelled by currents running as fast as 6 to 8 knots per hour, rescuers said. Although the Santa Ana River is usually dry in Orange County, the recent rains have turned it into a fast-moving rapid in places.

The pilot, John Winovich, steered his helicopter to the capsized raft, and he used the wind from the rotor blades to push the yellow and white craft to the river’s north bank. Then he dipped the aircraft to the water’s surface, and co-pilot William Cowhey snagged the raft with one of the helicopter’s landing skids and pulled it up on shore. Rescue crews looked on in the spotlights glaring against the water.

It was only then that rescuers realized Davis was still snagged on the raft, her booted ankle wrapped in one of the lines.

“This pilot from Angel 1 did all this at considerable risk to his own safety,” said Earl Stokes, captain of Anaheim Truck 5. “He deserves a heck of a medal.”

About 200 yards downriver from where Davis was pulled from the water is another spillway. If she had become snarled in that, officials said, there would have been no hope of rescuing her.

Once the unconscious Davis was safely on the bank, paramedics detected a pulse and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation as they struggled to keep her alive. She was then put aboard a helicopter and flown to UCI.

As doctors worked to keep Davis alive using life-support machines, friends and family members waited anxiously in the hospital conference room.

“They are some of the nicest people that I’ve met in my life,” said Bob Willis, a friend who was waiting at the apartment shared by Benkert and Gary Davis.

Times staff writers Anita M. Cal, Danny Sullivan and Henry Chu contributed to this report.

Woman Pulled From River Raft capsizes half a mile south of Imperial Highway overpass. Angel 1 helicopter pulls raft and woman from river an hour and 15 minutes after accident.