CATALINA ISLAND, CA — A medical helicopter carrying a patient crashed off Catalina Island, killing two people and sending two others to hospitals while rescuers searched for a fifth person who remained missing Thursday. Authorities said the aircraft went into the water late Wednesday night soon after taking off from the island.
Emergency crews, including the Coast Guard, firefighters and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department divers, searched through the night and into the afternoon. The crash drew a multi-agency response as officials worked to recover people from the water and determine exactly what happened.
Authorities say the helicopter went down shortly after takeoff
Coast Guard Capt. Stacey Crecy said the helicopter went down a short distance from Catalina Island after leaving the ground. The aircraft struck the water not long after takeoff, and the cause was not immediately known.
Crecy said the medical flight was believed to be carrying a patient off the island for more treatment on the mainland. The helicopter was later found submerged in about 240 feet of water, adding to the difficulty of the recovery effort.
Catalina Island sits about 22 miles off the Southern California mainland, and first responders were called just before 8 p.m. The Los Angeles County Fire Department said four people were pulled from the water, with two pronounced dead at the scene and two taken to hospitals in stable condition.
REACH Air Medical Services confirms deaths among its crew
The helicopter operator, REACH Air Medical Services of Sacramento, said two of its crew members died and a third was recovering in a hospital. The company did not release additional details about the people aboard or about the flight itself.
Sheriff Robert Luna said investigators were not yet naming the victims publicly. He described the dead as the male pilot and a female nurse, and said another medic and a fourth person, a man, were hospitalized.
The missing person was identified by relatives speaking to ABC7 as a woman who had been transported after an allergic reaction. They said her 20-year-old son was also on board to help translate for her.
Search crews worked by boat through the night and into Thursday
Because the helicopter came down in the water, rescue workers had to reach the scene by boat. Crecy said firefighters on the island were able to get there quickly, helping coordinate the immediate response once the aircraft went down.
The Coast Guard, island firefighters and sheriff’s divers kept searching after the initial rescue. Officials said the submerged helicopter made the operation more complicated, and the missing fifth person remained unaccounted for as of Thursday afternoon.
A memorial service was held on the island to honor the victims, even as the search continued. The gathering underscored the tight-knit nature of the community and the scale of the loss after the sudden crash.
NTSB begins probe into Eurocopter EC-135-P2 crash
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the crash and identified the aircraft as a Eurocopter EC-135-P2. A board spokesperson said staff were expected to arrive at the scene later Thursday.
The helicopter will be moved to a secure facility for evaluation, giving investigators a chance to examine the wreckage and look for clues about the sequence of events. Officials have not yet said what may have caused the aircraft to go into the water.
Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the helicopter landed on Catalina shortly after 7 p.m. after a 24-minute flight from an airport in Oceanside. That timing gives investigators a clear flight path to review as they piece together what happened in the final minutes.
Crash adds to a painful run of recent helicopter disasters in California
The Catalina Island crash came just 11 days after a firefighting helicopter went down in Yosemite National Park, killing two pilots, and two weeks after a news helicopter crash in Los Angeles that killed two people. Those back-to-back incidents have put an intense spotlight on helicopter safety across California.
For the Catalina response, the immediate focus remained on rescue, recovery and family notifications. Authorities said the woman’s relatives believed she was being flown to the mainland for additional medical care after an allergic reaction, a reminder of how quickly routine medical transport can turn into a deadly emergency.
Even with the investigation just beginning, officials said the aircraft had been in the water long enough and deep enough to make the scene difficult to manage. The coming days are expected to focus on evidence recovery, victim identification and determining why the flight ended so abruptly after takeoff.
Local news that matters, from Dulaney Griffin.
