Memorial Honors Medical Plane Crash Victims

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) – Friends and family gathered Roswell today to remember three crew members of a medical plane that crashed while flying a mother and her ill 15-month-old daughter to a hospital in Albuquerque.

The memorial at the Church on the Move honored pilot Ricky Byers of Ruidoso, flight nurse Brian Miller of Roswell and paramedic Deanna Palmer of Prescott Valley, Arizona. The Southwest Medevac crew was flying Tracy Smith of Ruidoso and her daughter, Lily.

A memorial service for the Smiths is slated for Monday in Ruidoso. Pictures of the crew and the Smiths were placed in front of the altar. Federal investigators are trying to determine what happened to cause the crash late Sunday night near Sierra Blanca Regional Airport.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)