Authorities ID victims of medical helicopter crash in Brainerd

Updated: 7:30 p.m. | Posted: 10:20 a.m.

Authorities have identified the two crew members who died and a third who was injured Friday when a medical helicopter crashed at the Brainerd airport.

North Memorial Health reported Saturday that pilot Tim McDonald and flight nurse Deb Schott died at the scene after the AgustaWestland A-109 helicopter crashed about 1 a.m. Friday at the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport.

Paramedic Josh Duda was taken to St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd. Airport officials said Duda initially was in "severe but stable condition" after the crash; an update on his condition was not available Saturday.

"We're caring for team members and the families of the employees who were involved in the crash is our priority, and just really focusing on making sure they're taken care of," North Memorial Health spokesperson Katy Sullivan said Friday.

McDonald was based at North Memorial Air Care's facility in Siren, Wis., and is survived by his wife and four children, according to an online fundraiser established for the family.

Schott, 58, was first licensed as a practical nurse in 1980, when she was 19 years old. The Minnesota Board of Nursing database says she first received a license to work as a registered nurse in 1994.

The Brainerd Dispatch reported that a prayer vigil for the victims of the helicopter crash will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday at Whipple Beach Recreational Area in Baxter, Minn.

Brainerd airport manager Steven Wright said Friday that the crash has left the community — all told, about 90 people work at the airport and the 13 businesses based there — shaken.

"We are a small airport community," he said. "We're all connected. So we consider them family."

Federal investigators have been on the scene. The FAA reported that the crash had happened on the helicopter's approach to the airport. Wright said the helicopter crashed next to a runway.

The aircraft was mostly intact, Wright said, "but it does have some damage. There was definitely trauma there." He said most of the impact and damage was on the bottom of the plane, indicating that it had come down hard onto the ground.

Wright noted that there had been some fog in the area at the time of the crash. But it wasn't remarkable or out of the norm, he said, and shouldn't have had an impact on the helicopter's landing.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz offered his condolences via tweet Friday afternoon.

"The medical professionals on board dedicated their lives to helping others and saving lives," he wrote. "Gwen and I send our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones."

Wright said the helicopter that crashed Friday was based in Brainerd. Two medical helicopter companies operate out of the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport, he said — North Memorial Health Air Care and LifeLink III — and both operate 24 hours a day.

"Our runways and our airspace system is set up to safely take traffic and all other situations around the clock," he said.

According to its website, North Memorial Health Air Care operates medical helicopters out of bases in Bemidji, Brainerd, Faribault, Princeton, Redwood Falls, Virginia and Siren, Wis., and takes more than 4,500 service requests a year across Minnesota, parts of Wisconsin, Iowa and North and South Dakota.

The division issued a statement midday Friday: "To our community and friends, thank you, for your condolences in response to the helicopter accident last night. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has sent messages of kindness, shared grief and sympathy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family members, friends and all of our colleagues who lost loved ones."

Since 2000 there have been four other medical helicopter crashes in Minnesota. According to a National Transportation Safety Board database, only one, on Sept. 17, 2016 and also involving a North Memorial aircraft, led to serious injuries.

In that case, the helicopter left Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport at 1:37 a.m. and crashed into trees in a residential area near Chandler Field Airport in Alexandria 27 minutes later. The crew had been en route to pick up a patient at Douglas County Hospital.