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Two Northwest Airmen Killed In U.K. Helicopter Crash

Two airmen from the Northwest were killed in a helicopter crash in England this week. The Pave Hawk helicopter went down in a marshy nature preserve in eastern England, killing the entire four-member crew.

Cpt. Christopher Stover, 28, was one of the pilots on the Air Force helicopter. Stover graduated from Evergreen High School in Vancouver in 2004.

A spokeswoman for the school district says he stayed in touch after graduating and exchanged pen pal letters with students at Harmony Elementary during his deployments.

Staff Sgt. Afton Thornton Ponce, 28, grew up near the town of Priest River in north Idaho — “out in the tules” as one relative put it. Ponce was mother who came from a military family. Those who knew her remember Ponce as outgoing and having a great, even goofy, sense of humor.

Stover and Ponce were performing a low-level training mission when the crash occurred. The cause is under investigation.

Inland Northwest Correspondent Jessica Robinson reports from the Northwest News Network's bureau in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. From the politics of wolves to mining regulation to small town gay rights movements, Jessica covers the economic, demographic and environmental trends that are shaping places east of the Cascades.