Helicopter crash under investigation

Olympia Federal investigators were at Providence-St. Peter Hospital early Saturday, examining debris from the second Airlift Northwest medical- evacuation helicopter crash in a month.

None of the four people on board was seriously injured in the accident, which occurred on takeoff from the hospital roof late Friday. The previous crash, Sept. 29 near Edmonds, killed all three crew members.

Weather on the coast was too rough, so the pilot “wisely decided” to do the pickup in Olympia, said Michael Copass, medical director at Airlift Northwest. The patient on board had “a life-threatening vascular issue,” he said. The patient was not injured in the crash, which occurred immediately after liftoff.

Women file claims against State Patrol

Seattle Four more women have filed claims against the Washington State Patrol, saying a former trooper should have been fired before he pulled each of them over during drunken-driving patrols and fondled them during pat-down searches.

The women – whose complaints seek $500,000 each – contend Michael Idland’s bosses had “more than enough cause to discharge him” because of poor job performance, but instead assigned him to drunken-driving patrols.

The state now faces at least eight claims filed by women whom Idland is convicted of touching inappropriately during searches. Idland spent 16 months in jail before entering modified guilty pleas earlier this month to three counts of custodial misconduct. He’s scheduled for sentencing Friday.