Missing Pilot's Body Found in Potomac River

Rescuers today recovered the body of the missing pilot of a medical evacuation helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River late Monday, Maryland state police said.

Sgt. Rob Moroney said the body of the pilot, Joseph E. Schaefer III, 56, of Sterling, Va., was found in the river shortly before noon about 40 yards from the crash site, just south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Schaefer was killed in Monday night's crash, which also killed paramedic Nicole Kielar, 29, of Richmond. Kielar's body was recovered yesterday.

Moroney said Schaefer's family was notified this afternoon.

Schaefer's wife, Mary Cecelia, told The Washington Post yesterday that her husband was an experienced pilot who had logged 4,000 hours flying helicopters, including two tours in Vietnam. "I want people to know he has all these medals from Vietnam. He was shot down there, rescued tons of people," Cecelia said.

"To us," she said of herself and their three sons, "he's a hero."

A nurse, Jonathan Godfrey, 36, of Chesapeake Beach, Md., survived the accident and was found by rescuers after the crash clinging to the helicopter's tail. Godfrey suffered a broken arm, leg and sternum, and he was taken to Washington Hospital Center.

Ten different agencies had been searching the water and on the shores of the Potomac overnight and into this morning, but "they stopped search and rescue efforts and all boats came to shore," around noon today, Moroney said.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have been trying to determine if the helicopter hit a nearby construction crane, was hit by a bird or failed mechanically.

NTSB spokeswoman Lauren Peduzzi said investigators have inspected four of the five cranes positioned at construction sites near the crash scene and found no indication that any of them has been struck by an aircraft.

Monday's crash of the $4.5 million twin-engine helicopter, operated by Air Methods Corp. of Denver, was the company's second fatality in a week. On Jan. 5, an Air Methods helicopter crashed in Tupelo, Miss., killing the pilot.

The helicopter that crashed in the Potomac had been in service about a month and was based at Stafford Regional Airport, the company said. The company's Life Net subsidiary opened its Stafford base about a year ago. Company officials said the helicopter was returning to Stafford at the time of the accident after taking a patient from Frederick Memorial Hospital to Washington Hospital Center.

An FAA spokesperson said yesterday that Schafer appeared to be following the normal path above the Potomac at a low altitude and that the pilot had been in contact with air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport's tower before the accident.

Staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report.