Three crew members were injured when a medical helicopter crashed on Highway 50 in Sacramento on Monday night shortly after taking off from the UC Davis Medical Center.

Those on board the REACH Air Medical Services H130 included a pilot, nurse and paramedic, and all three were critically injured. No patient was on board.

The crash was reported just after 7 p.m. on eastbound Highway 50 just east of Stockton Boulevard. The freeway was closed for hours before crews reopened the roads around 1:20 a.m. Tuesday.

Few details are known about the crew members, but friends identified the nurse on board as Suzie Smith, a Redding resident.

One of Smith's friends said the nurse would travel to Nicaragua every year to fix cleft palates and described her as the most giving person she's ever known.

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