Butte co-workers pray for missing Kenai paramedic

BUTTE — Search and rescue personnel have located some debris from a Lifeguard Alaska helicopter missing since Monday and the body of one of its three crewmembers.

Flight nurse John Stumpff, 47, of Sterling was found dead along with debris from the helicopter at about 1:35 p.m. Saturday, Alaska State Troopers report. Volunteers and searchers from numerous agencies have been combing the Prince William Sound area since the air ambulance was reported overdue about 7 p.m. Monday. Since that time, search efforts have been hampered by weather.

Two other crew members and the patient they were transporting to an Anchorage hospital have not been located, said Megan Peters, AST spokesperson.

“Just because we found some debris and one of the individuals doesn’t mean the search is over,” she said. Finding debris and a body is “not necessarily a positive sign, but at the same time, we don’t know yet.”

News of the missing LifeGuard air ambulance hits home in Butte, where one of the missing crewmen got his start and won respect as a hard working teenage volunteer who became an emergency medical technician, then a paramedic.

Former Butte-area resident Cameron Carter of Kenai is among the crew still missing in an area where wind gusts were reported at up to 50 mph. His family is in seclusion and asks that people not call, “and continue to pray for him,” said Butte Fire Chief Charles Von Gunten.

Carter has many friends. Von Gunten said the family’s phone has been “ringing off the hook” and they need some solitude.

Also missing is the patient the helicopter carried, Cordova innkeeper Gaye McDowell, and pilot Lance Brabham, 42, of Soldotna.

Von Gunten said Carter distinguished himself early in Butte, starting with the Butte department as a teenager and learning how to be a rescue technician and an interior attack firefighter. He started training as an EMT, then attended paramedic school, VonGunten said. “We’re a volunteer department. We couldn’t pay him full-time.

“We’ve known him a long time,” VonGunten said, adding that Carter’s friends and colleagues are praying he and the others missing will come through this. Carter’s good reputation as a hard worker carried on to Soldotna.

Paramedic/Engineer Carter’s 25th birthday is Dec. 19, according to Soldotna’s records, said Chief Chris Mokracek of Central Emergency Services in Soldotna.

The chief said Carter is a favorite with the sons and daughters of other firefighters and paramedics and a friend to all in the department.

“He just has this huge smile and overflowing personality,” said Mokracek, who joined CES three years ago just after Carter was hired.

Carter flew with LifeGuard as well as working for CES.

Despite intense searches from aircraft, ships and private vessels supervised by state troopers, Saturday’s discovery was the first sign of the LifeGuard helicopter that vanished en route to Anchorage. Emergency helicopters carry plenty of survival gear. The helicopter was on its way to Providence Alaska Medical Center and reported everything normal when it made its last radio check. Bad weather, including blowing snow, hampered early search efforts.

The craft was reported overdue after missing two radio checks, which were supposed to come 10 minutes apart. Gusty winds up to 50 mph were recorded by a National Weather Service buoy in the area near Esther Island.

“The weather is providing searchable conditions, but cloud cover is still making search efforts from the air more difficult,” said McHugh Pierre of the Alaska Department of Military and Veteran’s Affairs.