Redding
2 killed in fire copter crash: Bodies pulled from the Klamath River;
cause still unknown
By Constance Dillon, Record Searchlight
August 6, 2006
HAPPY CAMP -- A sheriff's dive team recovered Saturday the bodies of two
men killed Friday evening when their fire-fighting helicopter crashed
into the Klamath River about 10 miles southwest of here, the Siskiyou
County Sheriff's Department reported.
The bodies of pilot Terry Wayne Jacobs, 48, of Wofford Heights in Kern
County and his yet unnamed co-pilot were taken from the water about 4
p.m. Saturday.
The identity of the co-pilot will not be released until his family, who
live outside the United States, have been notified, said sheriff's
spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp.
Autopsies are planned for this week.
There was no one else in the aircraft. Both men were employed by Heavy
Lift Helicopters Inc. of Apple Valley, about 80 miles northeast of Los
Angeles.
The Sikorsky helicopter was assigned to help fight the Happy Camp
Complex of wildfires, said Skye Sieber, a U.S. Forest Service
spokeswoman. The Happy Camp Complex is a series of lightning-caused
fires that began last month and have burned 2,843 acres in the Klamath
National Forest. The fire was 25 percent contained as of Saturday.
Sieber was uncertain if the helicopter was being used to drop water on
the fire or to deliver personnel or supplies.
A team from the National Transportation Safety Board was expected to
join the investigation Saturday at the crash site along Highway 96 near
Independence Creek to help determine the cause of the crash.
Helicopters have been used to fight wildland fires since 1947, according
to the U.S. Forest Service Web site. The agency keeps 500 helicopters
contracted for such use.
In July 2004, Robert Dalberg of Aris Helicopters in San Jose and Bill
Baxter of the California Department of Fire and Forestry Protection's
Mendocino unit were seriously injured when their helicopter crashed over
the 3,240-acre Straylor Fire 20 miles southeast of Fall River Mills, in
northwest Lassen County.
Two north state men -- pilot Bruce Harrison, 48, of Redding and Terry
Hillenburg, 53, of Weaverville -- were injured in August 2002, when
their helicopter crash-landed while attempting a water drop on a
Colorado wildfire.
Reporter Constance Dillon can be reached at 225-8372 or at
cdillon@redding.com.