More detail on this person: 0Perry L Reynolds All five crewmen aboard a Marine helicopter were killed... All five crewmen aboard a Marine helicopter were killed when their Super Stallion crashed into the California desert and burned in the latest fatal crash of the trouble-plagued chopper, officials said today. Four other people -- three crewmen and a 3 -month-old patient - were killed in another incident in which a helicopter crashed and burned in a North Carolina swamp. The crashes occurred within a two-hour span Thursday night. The California accident was the fifth fatal crash since 1981 involving the $24 million helicopter, the military's largest and most expensive. Super Stallions have the worst accident rate of any helicopter flown by the Navy or Marines, records show. Police and rescue workers recovered bodies of the baby and three adults in the swampy Atlantic coast area near Pollocksville, N.C., where the air-ambulance helicopter crashed at about 9:30 p.m. EST. At least five other helicopters have crashed on missions of mercy within the last year, killing 17 people. The aircraft, a Bell Longranger II, was flying the infant from Camp Lejeune Hospital to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville. Officials identified the crew as pilot Perry Reynolds, 39, chief flight nurse Mike McGinnis, 32, and assistant chief flight nurse Pam Demaree, 28. The infant killed in the crash was identified as Xenia Lewis, who hospital officials say was being transported to Pitt County Memorial because she was suffering uncontrollable epileptic seizures. 'Many of us who personally knew these three EastCare team members recognize that they were uncommonly dedicated people,' hospital officials said in a statement. 'They sought excellence in every phase of their work. Yet safety was always their first priority and the cornerstone of the EastCare program.' The helicopter crew had reported a fire aboard the aircraft shortly before the crash, state Emergency Management spokeswoman Chrystal Stowe said. 'There was a report of a fire aboard the helicopter but the cause of the fire is unknown,' Stowe said. On the West Coast, a chopper assigned to Helicopter Squadron 465 at the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, Calif., crashed into the desert near the Mexico border about 11:30 p.m. EST. The CH-53 Echo aircraft was on a training mission over the Salton Sea test range, 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The Marine Corps confirmed all five crew members had died in a fiery crash. It was not immediately known what caused the crash. In North Carolina, Federal Aviation Administration officials hurried to the scene of the crash, about 10 miles south of New Bern, N.C. The crash about 80 miles from the copter's destination is the first involving aircraft of the Greenville hospital's 2-year-old EastCare program, Pitt County Memorial spokeswoman Sallie Whelan said. 'We routinely fly patients to our neonatal intensive care unit,' Whelan said. 'People at the hospital are shocked.' Updated information on Crash: https://www.reflector.com/news/local/a-date-with-d isaster-remembered/article_5a6ccb17-19ac-59c9-87 71-059cf9999ef0.html
Burial information: Lafayette Memorial Park, Fayetteville, NC
This information was last updated 02/21/2022
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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