Helicopter pilot died of exposure, crash injuries

SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico state police helicopter pilot died of hypothermia complicated by injuries he received in a crash during a mountain rescue mission, the state medical examiner’s office said Tuesday.

The helicopter crashed last Tuesday in the mountains near Santa Fe during an attempted rescue of a lost hiker, Megumi Yamamoto of Toyko. She died along with Sgt. Andy Tingwall. Another crew member, state police officer Wesley Cox, survived after spending the night in the helicopter’s wreckage in cold, snowy conditions at about 12,000 feet.

Tingwall and Yamamoto were thrown from the helicopter in the crash, but Cox remained strapped into the fuselage, according to state police.

The state Office of the Medical Investigator’s findings confirmed that Tingwall survived the crash while Yamamoto did not. Amy Boule, director of operations for the medical investigator’s office, said it’s uncertain how long Tingwall lived after the crash.

The medical investigator’s office said Tingwell died from “environmental cold exposure complicated by multiple blunt force injuries” and that Yamamoto died of “multiple blunt force injuries.” No other details were disclosed, but a full autopsy report will be released later.

Snow and high winds prevented an aerial search immediately after the helicopter crash, and aircraft couldn’t fly in the mountains for most of the next day because of winds and heavy cloud cover.

Cox has told state police that he and Tingwall called out one another’s names during the night after the crash, but Cox said he wasn’t able to locate Tingwall. Cox suffered back and leg injuries. The morning after the crash, Cox hiked more than a mile before reaching a search and rescue team.

Peter Olson, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said a helicopter reached the crash site on a steep ridge about 7 p.m. Wednesday, but the bodies of Tingwall and Yamamoto were not found until the next morning — about 36 hours after the crash.