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: 10/11/2026
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