SALT LAKE CITY — Coast Guard investigators are trying to determine what caused a helicopter crash in Utah’s mountains this week.
Coast Guard spokesman Levi Read said a team of about 20 people are in the state and have interviewed crew members from another helicopter that was traveling with the one that crashed Wednesday morning about 50 miles east of Salt Lake City.
Read said a salvage crew was able to reach the remote site in Wasatch County on Friday despite a winter storm that swept over eastern Utah on Thursday and Friday.
The three most-seriously injured of the five-member crew continued to improve Friday at University Hospital.
A spokeswoman said doctors upgraded Petty Officer 2nd Class Gina Panuzzi to serious condition.
The electronics technician from Lacey, Wash., had been the last member of the crew in critical condition.
Pilot Cmdr. Patrick Shaw of Juneau, Alaska, and co-pilot Lt. Cmdr. Steven Cerveny of Lincoln, Neb., were upgraded from serious to fair condition.
The crews were on their way back to base in Elizabeth City, N.C., when the helicopter crashed.
Authorities said snow and wind affected visibility but they don’t know if that’s what caused the crash.
The helicopters made a refueling stop in Salt Lake City — one of several required for the long trip — and were headed to Leadville.
The helicopter went down in a snowy, wooded area about 50 miles east of Salt Lake City.
Wasatch County Sheriff Todd Bonner told KSL-TV that visibility was “very minimal” because of snow and wind at the time of the crash.
“They (were) flying a low height, and they just kind of banked in the wrong area — didn’t really see what was there apparently — and into the pine trees,” Bonner said.
After the crash, the co-pilot used a cellphone to call the Coast Guard colleagues.
Detective Ron Bridge of the Summit County Sheriff’s Department also said at least one crew member from the downed helicopter communicated via text message, but communications were difficult because of the terrain.
The second helicopter spotted the wreckage but had to refuel before it returned to pick up two of the injured.
A third crew member was flown out in another helicopter.
All were taken to University Hospital at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
