Honorees

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Year Honored
1997
Honoree
Pat Varea
Agency
Heartflite
Agency City
Spokane
Agency State
WA
Last Call
8/27/89
Cause of Death
Medical Aviation Accident
Biography
When the call came Sunday evening, August 27, 1989, for a Heartflite pilot, Pat Varea had just finished a barbecue dinner with his best friend and fellow pilot, Tom Gould. The men had started flying together about a dozen years earlier in Varea's native Fiji. Either one could have taken the medical helicopter mission to the Canadian border. It was up to them.<br /> <br /> They had cooked dinner at Gould's home, while his wife, Lyn, worked her shift as a registered nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Since there were dishes to be cleared, Pat offered to go. With Varea in the helicopter were registered nurse, Lyn Gould, respiratory therapist, Bob Siekerman, and the patient, Robert Adams. A few hours later, the helicopter was reported "missing." The scattered remains of the helicopter were found early Monday morning on the heavily wooded Larch Mountain. No one had survived.<br /> <br /> The week had been one of celebration for mechanic and pilot Pat Varea. On Friday, he officially became a U.S. citizen and he could finally bring his wife from their South Pacific homeland. Tafa Varea was to arrive in Spokane with their daughter, Stella, in a few days. Instead, Varea went home to them.<br /> <br /> "Flying was like breathing to that guy," said Tom Henricksen, former employer."Of all the pilots we've had over the years from Alaska to the Dakotas, he was superior." Every day at 6:30 a.m. Varea could be found on the roof inspecting the helicopter to make sure it was flight worthy."He treated those machines like his children," said Jean Bening, director of flight operations for Heartflite.<br /> <br /> Honored 1997