The conditions of all three crew members injured in the crash of a Coast Guard helicopter in the snow-clogged mountains east of Salt Lake City were upgraded Friday.

University Hospital spokeswoman Ryann Rasmussen said the pilot, Cmdr. Patrick Shaw, had been upgraded from serious to fair condition; electronics technician Gina Panuzzi was upgraded from critical to serious; and the co-pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Steven Cerveny, was upgraded from serious to fair condition at University Hospital.

The MH-60T Jayhawk, en route with another Coast Guard helicopter from duty at the Vancouver Winter Games back to their base in North Carolina, went down when it hit bad weather about 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The Jayhawk's blades came apart as it plunged through a thick canopy of pine trees. It slammed into a hillside in the Silver Meadows area on top of Soapstone Pass, about 50 miles east of Salt Lake City.

Two of the five crew members escaped injury, but Panuzzi, a petty officer second class, suffered a large loss of blood from a critical abdomen wound; Cerveny suffered a crushed leg when his side of the helicopter hit a tree; and Shaw suffered internal injuries.

Bob Mims