Hiker, pilot of crashed heli found dead

SANTA FE (KRQE) - New Mexico State Police Chief Faron Segotta on Thursday confirmed that searchers found the pilot and a hiker dead after the helicopter they were on board crashed near Santa Fe.

The bodies of Sgt. Andy Tingwall and University of New Mexico graduate student Megumi Yamamoto are being brought to the state Office of the Medical Investigator for autopsies, Segotta said during a 2 p.m. Mountain time news conference.

Crews found the helicopter's wreckage on Wednesday. It was spread over about 800 feet of the mountainside on a snowy face of Santa Fe Baldy.

Earlier Wednesday, Officer Wesley Cox, 29, of New Mexico State Police found rescuers and was airlifted to CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where, according to hospital spokesperson Arturo Delgado, he is in the intensive-care unit in serious condition.

He had been acting as the spotter during the mission to find and rescue Yamamoto, who had been separated from her boyfriend while camping near Lake Katherine.

State Police Chief Faron Segotta said Cox had told him the pair had recently picked up Yamamoto and was lifting off when the tail rotor of the helicopter struck something, causing the helicopter to spin. Tingwall was able to regain control, level out and gain some altitude, and then tried to land on a flat spot.

Instead, though, the helicopter came down hard, sending the aircraft rolling about 100 yards downhill and ejecting all three occupants.

Cox had said he suspected Yamamoto didn't survive the wreck, but he and Tingwall were able to continue yelling to each other.

"They would call each other's name--'Andy, Wes, Andy, Wes'--and that's how they communicated," Segotta said. "They didn't exchange any other information as to 'How are you doing? What's hurt?' and things of that nature."

Cox said he and Tingwall could not see each other, and before he hiked out Wednesday morning he called for Tingwall again but did not get an answer.

A storm system was brewing at the time of the crash, but it is not known whether that was a factor. However low clouds, fog and conditions described as blizzard-like limited the air search until Wednesday afternoon and added to the danger of the ground search.

About 5 inches of snow fell overnight adding to the existing snowpack, and temperatures forecast for early Thursday were expected to dip into the high 20s at the crash site.

Rescuers worked in the Pecos Wilderness about 16 miles northeast of Santa Fe. The chopper crashed on the northeastern face of Santa Fe Baldy 400 feet below its 12,622-foot summit.

Six New Mexico State Police officers have died in aircraft crashes during the department's history, one during service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, according to biographies on its Officer Down Memorial site.