A helicopter circles over the mountain where a Navy helicopter, white wreckage at left center, crashed near Lake Isabella, Calif. on Thursday, March 28, 2002. Two people were killed and four others were injured in the crash.(AP Photo/Bakersfield Californian, Felix Adamo)
A Carson City man killed Thursday in a Navy helicopter crash left behind a pregnant wife and infant daughter.
Lt. Cmdr. Arthur Jason Bayer, 36, had just started a family after attending Navy test pilot school.
Bayer was one of two crew members killed in the accident, which occurred at about 1 p.m. Thursday.
Petty Officer Charles Chaco, 22, from Agat, Guam, also died in the crash. Seven other passengers received minor injuries.
The helicopter had taken off at around 9:30 a.m. on a routine flight from the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division.
Bayer is the son of Carson City attorney Arthur Julius Bayer and Merry Ann Bayer, a Carson High School teacher who died in 1999 and has a scholarship named after her.
Bayer had been married to his wife, the former Ann Eckles of Scottsdale, Ariz. for about seven years.
Ann Bayer is pregnant with the couple's second child, due in July. Bayer's daughter, Gabriella Ann is one year old.
Bayer was transferred in February to Naval Air Station Lemoore in the Central Valley from China Lake Naval Weapons Center in Ridgecrest, Calif., where his wife and children live.
His father is presently in Ridgecrest with the family, according to his office staff.
