Everett Pilot Killed In Helicopter Crash -- 13 Dead On U.N.- Chartered Aircraft In Haiti

The United Nations today acknowledged that Errol Van Eaton of Everett was among 13 people killed in the crash of a helicopter Sunday in Haiti.

Van Eaton, 51, a U.S. Army Reserve Brigadier General, was piloting a United Nations-chartered, Russian-made helicopter when it crashed shortly after departing Port-au-Prince for Cap Haitien, a city in northern Haiti.

"It was with profound sadness that the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, learned of the deaths," according to a statement issued today by a U.N. spokesman.

Van Eaton was a Vietnam veteran, a former Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector and a pilot for International Charter Incorporated (ICI), of Salem, Ore.,from which the helicopter had been chartered.

The aircraft, an MI-8, which also carried six Argentinians and six Russians, left Port-au-Prince to help a Finnish woman hurt in a speedboat accident in northern Haiti. But radio contact with the helicopter was lost 15 minutes into the flight, U.N. officials said.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescue crew found the wreckage of the aircraft yesterday about 35 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince. There were no survivors. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

The Argentinians, who were serving as civil police officers in Haiti, were on board to guard the first helicopter that had been sent on the mission, said Hiro Ueki, a U.N. spokesman. After flying the first leg of the mission, the first helicopter was unable to return because of a fuel leak. Van Eaton's helicopter was sent to complete the mission, Ueki said. The Russians were part of Van Eaton's crew, he said.

Van Eaton was chief pilot and director of maintenance for ICI, an air-support company, according to the company's Web site.

Yesterday, in Van Eaton's quiet, tree-lined South Everett neighborhood, relatives and neighbors waited anxiously for news.

Friends gathered at the home of Van Eaton and his wife, Suzan, who declined to be interviewed.

`Like aunts and uncles'

Several neighbors described the Van Eatons as good friends and wonderful people.

"They're like aunts and uncles to our kids," said Richard Bentson, who said the couple have two grown sons.

Bentson described Errol Van Eaton as an outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman, and an avid flier.

"He's a very experienced pilot. He's got lots of hours. He's flown just a huge variety of aircraft."

Friends described the Van Eatons as a family with strong religious faith. Van Eaton had been a member and a deacon at First Baptist Church of Bothell.

Friends and colleagues said Van Eaton was formerly with the Army National Guard and remained active in the Army Reserve.

Dave Lehman, an aviation-safety inspector for the FAA in Renton, said Van Eaton served as an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam.

He started with the FAA in Wyoming in the mid-1980s as an aviation safety inspector. He transferred to the Seattle area about a year later and worked as a general aviation operations inspector, checking everything from small aircraft to helicopters to Lear jets to hot-air balloons, Lehman said.

Later, he supervised aviation safety inspections, retiring from the FAA in 1994, Lehman said.

Company flies around the world

According to the ICI Web site, Van Eaton had 30 years of flight-safety and regulatory service with civil authorities and military organizations.

ICI describes itself as an aviation, logistics and security company that moves cargo and passengers with helicopters, airplanes, trucks, boats and ships. ICI has been involved in air-charter services all over the world.

According to U.N. spokesman Hiro Ueki, the company is under contract to supply two helicopters to the U.N. mission in Haiti.

In 1996, ICI was awarded a contract to provide the Canadian contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti with air services, using two Russian-made helicopters based in Port-au-Prince, the company Web site says.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporters Chuck Taylor and Dave Birkland and Reuters is included in this report.