Funeral services set for James Sauer, Mercy Flight pilot killed in helicopter crash
Funeral services for the Churchville pilot killed Tuesday in a helicopter crash will be held next week.
James Sauer, 60, of Churchville, a Mercy Flight employee and pilot who was one of two people killed in Tuesday's crash near Norton Road in Elba, Genesee County, will be remembered at a funeral service at 1 p.m. Monday at the Open Door Baptist Church, 350 Scottsville-Chili Road in Chili.
More than 1,500 people are expected to attend the service at the church where Sauer was a member with Marie, his wife of 39 years.
New York State Police and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office plan to honor Sauer on Monday with a police escort between a funeral home in Hiltonand the Chili church. The New York Army National Guard will provide the color guard and 21-gun salute for Sauer's funeral, said Trooper Mark O'Donnell.
Interment will be private.
A U.S. Army veteran and former police officer, Sauer spent more than four decades serving others, starting in 1979 with the Army.
Remembering James Sauer: 'A man of faith, family and honor.'
He was a pilot for the New York Army National Guard for 40 years, retiring in 2020 and served several tours overseas. A former Rochester police officer from 1993 to 2001, he also worked for the Holley Police Department and later spent 17 years as a New York State Police pilot and retired in 2021.
He started flying for Mercy Flight in October 2020.
"He lived to fly, and flew to live," John Spaulding said of Sauer, who friends and family called Jim or Jimmy. Sauer, he said, started flying when he was 13 in the Civil Air Patrol and continued flying until his final day.
His other love, according to his friends, were his loved ones.
"We were so close that we became each other's family," said longtime friend Wendy Pike of Irondequoit, who has been best friends with Sauer since high school. Pike described Sauer as as "an absolutely selfless man" who always put everybody's needs before his own.
Sauer is survived by his wife, Marie, two adult children Josh and Laura, six grandchildren and numerous other relatives, including three sisters and his brother, Gerry, who lived just next door.
Sauer and Bell Helicopter employee and flight instructor Stewart M. Dietrick, 60, of Prosper, Texas were killed in the crash, which remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and New York State Police.
NTSB: Loud boom heard before Mercy Flight helicopter crash in Genesee County
Earlier this week, NTSB said that the tail of the marked Mercy Flight helicopter separated from the aircraft and crashed Tuesday afternoon, nearly two hours into a training flight that originated at the Genesee County Airport in Batavia.
Witnesses in the area saw the helicopter and heard a loud boom before they "saw the helicopter falling from the sky," said Aaron McCarter, an air safety investigator for the NTSB.
It was not yet known what caused the crash.
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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Funeral services set for Mercy Flight helicopter pilot James Sauer
