More detail on this person: A/C accident while
piloting a Russian MI-8 in Haiti as a member of
the Army Reserve.According to a personal
message I received from one of the first
eyewitnesses to the crash site (an employee of ICI
who was a close personal friend of General Van
Eaton's), Errol Van Eaton was NOT piloting the
helicopter. He was not even in the cockpit area.
From: LaDora Elder Grant (Editor's note: This
differs from the following newspaper article which
is probably incorrect. GBR.)
Errol Van Eaton, of Everett, was among 13 people
killed in the crash of a helicopter Sunday in
Haiti.
Van Eaton, 51, a brigadier general in the U.S.
Army Reserve, was piloting a United
Nations-chartered helicopter when it crashed
shortly after departing Port-au-Prince for Cap
Haitien, a city in northern Haiti.
"It was with profound sadness that the U.N.
Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, learned of the
deaths," read a statement issued today by a U.N.
spokesman.
Van Eaton was a Vietnam veteran, a former Federal
Aviation Administration safety inspector and a
pilot for International Charter Incorporated
(ICI), of Salem, Ore.
The aircraft, a Russian-made MI-8, which also
carried six Argentinians and six Russians, left
Port-au-Prince to help a Finnish woman hurt in a
speedboat accident in northern Haiti. Radio
contact with the helicopter was lost 15 minutes
into the flight, U.N. officials said.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescue crew found
the wreckage of the aircraft yesterday about 35
miles northeast of Port-au-Prince; there were no
survivors. The cause of the accident is under
investigation.
Van Eaton was piloting the second helicopter to be
sent on the rescue mission, said Hiro Ueki, a
U.N. spokesman. The first helicopter, after flying
the first leg of the mission, was unable to return
because of a fuel leak.
Yesterday, in Van Eaton's quiet, tree-lined South
Everett neighborhood, relatives and friends
gathered at the home of Van Eaton and his wife,
Suzan, who declined to be interviewed.
`Like aunts and uncles'
Several neighbors described the Van Eatons as
good friends and wonderful people.
"They're like aunts and uncles to our kids," said
Richard Bentson, who said the couple have two
grown sons.
Bentson described Errol Van Eaton as an
outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman, and an avid
flier.
"He's a very experienced pilot. He's got lots of
hours. He's flown just a huge variety of
aircraft."
Friends described the Van Eatons as a family with
strong religious faith. Van Eaton had been a
member and a deacon at First Baptist Church of
Bothell.
Dave Lehman, an aviation-safety inspector for the
FAA in Renton, said Van Eaton served as an Army
helicopter pilot in Vietnam.
He started with the FAA in Wyoming in the
mid-1980s as an aviation safety inspector. He
transferred to the Seattle area about a year later
and worked as a general aviation operations
inspector, checking everything from small aircraft
to helicopters to Lear jets to hot-air balloons,
Lehman said.
Later he supervised aviation safety inspections,
retiring from the FAA in 1994, Lehman said.
Company flies around the world
At the time of his death, Van Eaton was chief
pilot and director of maintenance for ICI, an
air-support company, according to ICI's site on
the World Wide Web.
The company is under contract to supply two
helicopters to the U.N. mission in Haiti.
ICI describes itself as an aviation, logistics and
security company that moves cargo and
passengers with helicopters, airplanes, trucks,
boats and ships. ICI has been involved in
air-charter services all over the world, according
to its Web site.
The company was founded in Washington in 1992
and has been associated with National Charter
Network at Boeing Field in Seattle. In 1994, ICI
moved from Boeing Field to Salem.
Twelve ICI personnel were based in Port-au-Prince,
providing air support to the Canadian contingent
of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti, as well
as to Haitian officials, foreign-aid
organizations, the U.N. and U.S. agencies,
according to ICI.
Among other missions, the company said, it
distributed ballot boxes for elections and
carried construction supplies.
Information from Seattle Times staff reporters
Dave Birkland and Chuck Taylor and from Reuters
is included in this report.
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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