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Model Recalls Moments Before, After Deadly Helicopter Crash

MICHAEL EGGER / News Channel 8

Sarasota County sheriff's deputies pick up pieces of a helicopter that crashed off Casey Key on Tuesday.

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Tribune reporter Keith Morelli contributed to this report.

Published: September 12, 2007

Updated: 09/12/2007 03:37 pm

Video: Rescuers Rush To Help | Photo Gallery

SARASOTA - One second, Jennifer Zuknich was skimming along on a cigar boat, decked out in a bright red bathing suit and posing in the warm sun. The next, she was in the water, breathing in aviation fuel, trying to save the life of a helicopter pilot who crashed right in front of her.

Zuknich, 28, of Sarasota, was modeling aboard the boat for a photo shoot for Powerboat Magazine on Tuesday morning just off the coast of Casey Key.

"They were very close to get the photos," Zuknich said at a news conference in Sarasota this afternoon. "They were directly in front of the boat."

Then the right side of the helicopter hit the water, she said.

"We saw a wall of water and we ducked," she said, referring to herself and the boat's operator.
"We closed our eyes and I said, 'Here it comes.' " she said.

Debris from the crashed helicopter hit the boat, shattering the windshield.

She and the boat's driver, Robert Teague, 59, rose to see debris scattered in the water and the two photographers and pilot bobbing amid the sinking parts of the helicopter.

Zuknich, a nurse when she's not modeling, immediately jumped into the water and swam through the aviation fuel, which burned her skin and lungs, to reach the nearest injured man, the pilot.

"I think anybody, when you see something like that, would try to help," she said, brushing off suggestions that she was a heroine.

She reached Mark A. Watters, 44, of Pasadena Calif., she said. He was breathing and had a pulse.

Teague swam to the two photographers. Zuknich said at least one of them was screaming in pain.

Zuknich tried to comfort Watters, saying, "They're going to come. Hang in there," she said. The aviation fuel made her nauseated.

"You could hear him breathing. You could hear the water in his lungs," she said. She made sure he floated on his back and his airway stayed above the water.

Teague, of California, made it to the photographers, she said, but their injuries were more severe. They would die en route to the hospital.

"We didn't have good results with them," she said in a shaking voice.

Federal and local investigators were combing the area today trying to figure out what happened.

Dive team members from two local agencies retrieved debris from 30 feet of water about a mile west of Casey Key, said Sarasota County sheriff's Deputy Kevin Deiter, who spent the past two days diving for evidence.

He said the hope was to have all the debris gathered by the end of today. Fifteen divers were working on the recovery process, he said.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Jose Obregon said it appeared as though the helicopter hit the water and crashed. The reason is a more difficult question, he said.

"We have a good idea what happened," he said, adding that typical investigations into such crashes could take a year before conclusions are reached.

In about a week, Obregon will issue preliminary findings, which may include facts about what happened but not why, he said.

"It's the tip of the iceberg," he said.

Killed in the crash were Thomas Newby, 50, a freelance photographer from Manhattan Beach, Calif., and Mark Copeland, 44, a freelance videographer from Raleigh, N.C., the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said.

It was Copeland's first time working with Powerboat Magazine, according to Dick Hendricks, executive vice president of the magazine's parent firm, Maple Grove, Minn.-based Ehlert Publishing Group.

Newby was with the magazine for 12 years, and Watters for six years, Hendricks said.

"It was going to be a weeklong event, and they were out doing a morning shoot when the accident happened," Hendricks said by phone Tuesday.

The video and photo shoot was for Powerboat's magazine, Web sites and TV show, American Powerboat Television.

"We've been doing shoots for 35 years," Hendricks said. "This is the first incident of this kind."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or at kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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