Suzie Smith, nurse who died after Sacramento helicopter crash, honored in Redding funeral

A celebration of life was held in Redding on Friday night to honor nurse Suzie Smith, who died days after the medical helicopter she was on crashed onto a Sacramento highway in October.

A REACH medical helicopter had just taken off from UC Davis Medical Center on Oct. 6 before crashing onto Highway 50. Smith was trapped under the wreckage, and good Samaritans ran from their cars to help first responders lift the helicopter so she could be rescued.

The other two passengers onboard – pilot Chad Millward and paramedic Margaret Davis — were injured.

In Redding, Smith was remembered in heartfelt tributes from her family, friends and the local community. The service focused on faith in a room full of people Smith cared about and cared for.

The tributes to Smith came in music, memories, and worship in a packed auditorium in Redding.

“We know that Suzie touched so many lives on that helicopter,” brother-in-law Kevin Luntey said. “We’re just excited that people have the opportunity to come and honor her.”

Luntey said his sister-in-law “was a servant” and described her as one of the hardest-working women he had ever met.

“She’d work a 30-hour shift on the helicopter, and work a shift at a vacation bible school,” Luntey said.

Smith spent five decades working as a nurse, with 21 of those being for REACH, devoted to saving lives.

Beth Watt worked as a paramedic for REACH alongside Smith for all those years, building a partnership in the air and a friendship on the ground.

“She showed me how to do it right,” Watt said. “Whether it was working, momming, or whether it was being a wife, she did it right. She was an example in every part of her life.”

Those who attended Smith’s celebration of life offered stories about her kindness, her need to help anyone who crossed her path, her life of service — all ways her family hopes she lives on.

“She would go up the river in a dugout canoe to go give vaccines,” Luntey said. “Maybe that’s not for everybody, but what can you do in your community? What can you do to be a better person?”

Watt told us about a rainbow that appeared above Smith’s house in the moments after she passed. On Friday, in the sky over this celebration of her life, there was another rainbow.

“She died doing what she loved, and she loved Jesus to the end,” Watt said.