Body of missing woman recovered after Catalina medical helicopter crash
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- Three people died after a medical transport helicopter traveling from Catalina Island to the mainland crashed into the Pacific on Wednesday; two others were rescued and stable.
- The crash follows another fatal REACH Air Medical Services helicopter accident last October in Sacramento; the NTSB’s final report on that incident is pending.
The body of a third victim killed in a helicopter crash off Santa Catalina Island has been recovered, authorities said Thursday night.
Earlier in the day, investigators located the wreckage of a medical transport chopper that crashed in the Pacific Ocean after departing Wednesday night from the island, killing a pilot, a nurse and a patient.
Two people survived. Sources familiar with the investigation identified the patient as Catalina Romero, a 45-year-old resident of Avalon who suffered a severe allergy attack. ABC7 was first to report on the woman being identified.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department divers found her body in the wreckage of the helicopter Thursday, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
At a news conference Thursday, Sheriff Robert Luna noted the wreckage was deep in the water, 200 feet below the surface. Divers from the department’s special enforcement bureau would work with other agencies and use technology to search the ocean floor, he said at the time.
“This is a tragedy for Catalina and for Los Angeles County,” said county Supervisor Janice Hahn. “The men and women on board dedicated their careers to responding to crisis and saving lives. They are heroes.”
The Los Angeles County Fire Department received a call at 7:53 p.m. Wednesday for a marine rescue to pull three people from the water, agency spokesperson Jonathan Torres said.
The department learned that the three were aboard a helicopter bound for the mainland and that five people were involved, Torres said. The aircraft was a Eurocopter EC135 P2, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The helicopter was equipped as a medical transport and was owned by REACH Air Medical Services, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Flight tracking data show the helicopter left Catalina’s Pebbly Beach heliport and got about 175 feet above sea level about eight seconds into its flight before rapidly descending.
“We have a helicopter down right off of Pebbly Beach,” emergency dispatchers said over the radio, according to an audio recording of the incident. “We need Baywatch Avalon by boat. We’ve got a helicopter with potentially three people on board. ... We have people screaming for help.”
Rescuers found four people in the water. Two of them were pronounced dead, and two were rescued, taken to mainland hospitals and were stable, Torres said. The search for the fifth person continued through the night and into Thursday.
The Coast Guard sent an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and crew to the island and deployed a 45-foot response boat to assist with the incident.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Mark Leahy said the helicopter and boat searched for the missing person across several square miles, and used computer software that predicts where the person might be based on environmental factors such as drift and currents.
The crash left a large debris field that ocean currents pushed back toward the island, he said, which made it easier for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to recover some of it.
Although it is too early to say exactly what caused the crash, aviation attorney Mike Slack said that, with five people on board, a medical transport helicopter could exceed its maximum weight if it had a full tank of fuel.
Slack said the NTSB would have little difficulty recovering the helicopter and extracting flight data despite the aircraft being underwater. Many helicopters are equipped with video and audio recording devices that capture everything inside, as well as flight and engine data recorders.
REACH Air Medical Services said in a statement on social media that it was aware of the incident and was gathering information and coordinating with authorities.
“Our thoughts are with the families, loved ones and colleagues affected by this tragedy,” the company said in its statement. “We are focused on supporting our team and everyone impacted during this incredibly difficult time.”
Federal aircraft records show the helicopter was manufactured by Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH, a German company.
The NTSB will lead the investigation, Torres said.
An NTSB spokesperson said that the agency’s investigators arrived at the scene about 11:30 a.m. Thursday to document the site and examine the helicopter once it is recovered and transported to a secure facility.
“It is very early in the investigation, and limited information is available at this time,” the spokesperson wrote.
Catalina Island has one small hospital. About 250 people are transported to the mainland by helicopter each year for medical treatment, the hospital’s chief executive previously said.
Three people are in critical condition after miraculously surviving the impact of an air ambulance helicopter crash on Highway 50 in Sacramento on Monday night.
NTSB data show that of 13 incidents involving EC135 helicopters since 2005, not including Wednesday’s, six have involved fatalities. The last occurred in March 2025 in Canton, Miss., and involved a medical transport helicopter called AirCare 3. Three people died.
Wednesday’s fatal air disaster was also not the first involving a REACH Air Medical Services helicopter. Last October, a nurse aboard another REACH Eurocopter was killed, and the pilot and flight paramedic suffered serious injuries.
According to an NTSB preliminary report, “about 26 seconds” after the helicopter left UC Davis Medical Center heliport in Sacramento, “the flight paramedic reported the power had gone out and made a Mayday call as the chopper autorotated and crashed onto U.S. Route 50.”
An NTSB examination of the crash site found that an outer portion of the main rotor blade had broken off and was found stuck in a detached garage of a nearby home. The helicopter reached about 500 feet before an 11-second descent. A final report on the crash is still pending.
In November 2015, firefighters were using a REACH Eurocopter for training to simulate patient loading and unloading at the Apple Valley airport when the pilot felt a shudder and immediately landed. An NTSB investigation found that a towel had been ingested from an unsecured storage container on the ground, resulting in substantial damage to the tail rotor blades.
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