A Cold, Deadly Plunge Into the 'Surreal'

Medevac Flight Nurse Recounts Helicopter's Crash and River Rescue

Jonathan Godfrey hugs his daughter Logan, 2, after describing his ordeal in the Jan. 10 crash of a medevac helicopter in the Potomac River. (Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

Washington -- busy and brightly lighted as he flew over it the night of Jan. 10 -- suddenly became a dark, lonely place for flight nurse Jonathan Godfrey after the medevac helicopter crashed into the Potomac River, stranding him in 39-degree water where he clung to a piece of the aircraft's skeleton and watched cars pass on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

"It was surreal," Godfrey said yesterday in his first public comments since the AirEvac helicopter went down on its way back to its base in Stafford County, killing the other two crew members. "For a few minutes, it looked like the world just kept going on, and I was out in the wilderness."

Then Godfrey started to see flashing blue lights on the bridge. Then red lights. "There was an element of, 'Oh, yes, someone does know that I am here, and I am down.' " When a rescue helicopter appeared, he tried to attract its spotlight with a small penlight.

As federal officials continued to investigate the crash, Godfrey, 36, of Chesapeake Beach had a small news conference in Alexandria yesterday to say that he is still coming to grips with what happened -- and that "I absolutely do not know" why it happened.

Rescue workers and a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board have quoted Godfrey as saying he thought the helicopter hit something. The report added that Godfrey recalled seeing a passing jet before the crash and wondering whether its wake turbulence -- which whips off the tail, then sinks and dissipates -- would cause trouble for the helicopter.

"I'm going to let the NTSB's [final] report stand on its own and trust what they come up with," he said yesterday.

Torn from the helicopter and still in his seat, Godfrey recalled waking up "on the bottom of the river" in five to seven feet of water, undoing his seat belt and making his way to the surface. He spent five days in the hospital for treatment of broken ribs, sternum and humerus, the bone that extends from the shoulder to the elbow.

The strap burn where his helmet tore off during the crash has healed, but the points of the metal brace that holds his shoulder steady are visible through his shirt. He is still taking some pain medication as he recuperates at home with his wife, Debbie, and three children, 8, 4 and 2.

"I want to climb back into a helicopter with all my heart. But I need to heal, go through physical therapy and spend a lot of time talking with my wife," he said.

At the time of the crash, the Texas-born Godfrey had been working for nine months with the 12-person AirEvac team at Stafford Regional Airport. The company is part of Denver-based Air Methods Corp., the country's largest operator of air ambulances. Before that, he worked primarily in hospitals, including Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg and Children's Hospital in Washington.

At AirEvac, he worked closely with the other two people in the helicopter: paramedic Nicole Kielar, 29, of Henrico County, Va., and pilot Joseph E. Schaefer III, 56, of Sterling, who had been flying since the Vietnam War. They had just dropped off a cardiac patient at Washington Hospital Center, and Godfrey said his last memory aboard the helicopter was discussing with Kielar the plusses and minuses of two pain medications.

Now, Godfrey said, he has "visited both sides" of the emergency medical system, having been pulled from the river by the Alexandria Fire Department's Marine Operations Team. "To those of us who have been able to stare at your faces and hold your hand," he said, his face flushing as he seemed to speak to others in his line of work, "you are heroes."