All Four Victims of Calif. Air Ambulance Crash Identified

Aug. 02--A pilot with two decades of experience, a nurse, a paramedic and a 35-year-old patient were identified Monday as the four victims killed when a medical transport plane en route to Oakland crashed last week in Humboldt County.

Officials identified April Rodriquez as the patient being flown from Crescent City (Del Norte County) to Oakland International Airport on the Cal-Ore Life Flight plane, operated by Reach Air Medical Services. All of the occupants were from Crescent City, authorities said.

"This is one of the saddest moments in our history," the company's president, Sean Russell, said in a statement. "First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the patient and our crew members."

The three additional victims were pilot Larry Mills, flight nurse Deborah Kroon and paramedic Michelle Tarwater.

Mills, a 54-year-old father and husband with 20 years of flying experience and 12 years as a volunteer first responder, was piloting the twin-engine Piper PA-31 Cheyenne when he reported smoke filling the cockpit around 1 a.m. Friday, officials said.

Mills tried to fly the plane back to Crescent City but it disappeared from radar in rural Humboldt County, 5 miles northeast of the Arcata-Eureka Airport, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Search crews with the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office found the plane wreckage around 10 a.m. Friday. All four occupants were pronounced dead at the scene.

Kroon was originally from New Zealand and spent 25 years as a critical care nurse in hospitals around the United States, Reach Air Medical Services officials said. She had been with Cal-Ore Life Flight since October 2014.

Tarwater was a certified flight paramedic who had been with Cal-Ore since 2011.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky

Copyright 2016 - San Francisco Chronicle