UPDATED: Three dead in helicopter crash in California north of Reno, Nevada. Victims are crew members on medical flight. Picture from scene in Lassen County.

Photo by Marilyn Newton, RGJ.

Three crew members died when a medical helicopter crashed northwest of Reno in California’s Lassen County around 2 a.m. today.

The Mountain Lifeflight helicopter 3 had dropped off a patient in Reno and was returning to Susanville at the time of the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.

Google map of crash site.

The crash was on the west side of U.S. 395 between Hallelujah Junction and the north loop of the Red Rock Road intersection with U.S. 395.

The helicopter is an Aerospatiale AS350 and it was destroyed by the crash impact and the fire, the FAA reported. The pilot was not communicating with air traffic controllers at the time of the accident, the FAA said. FAA and NTSB investigators were headed to the scene.

Mountain Lifeflight issued a brief statement confirming three crew members were lost and said more information would be released when it was made available.

It was a Mountain Lifeflight 3 helicopter that crashed in March 2002 after dropping off a patient in Reno, killing the pilot.

The helicopter with three on board had just passed over Honey Lake with pilot Raymond Watson at the controls.

Nurse Gary Zahniser recalled in a 2002 interview that he sat chatting with flight paramedic Chuck Jerpeon and then the next thing he remember, Zahniser was underwater, struggling to get his seat belt off so he could swim to the surface.

“It happened so fast,” Zahniser, said then. . “It’s like you’re in a dream, and it’s surreal.”

“We were flying over Honey Lake and both just kind of chitchatting, and then the next thing I knew I was underwater,” Zahniser said.

Two people survived the crash into Honey Lake.

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