Oregon, Lincoln County sue Trump administration, asking them to return Newport’s search-and-rescue helicopter

NEWPORT, Ore. — Oregon’s state attorney general, Lincoln County and a Newport community organization announced they are suing the Trump administration in order to get a U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter back. 

At the end of October, according to the city of Newport, the helicopter was moved from the Newport Air Facility to North Bend’s U.S. Coast Guard Base — about 70 miles south — without public notice and without confirmation if that move is permanent. 

The decision left many worried about the safety of tourists and fisherman based out of Newport, with Lincoln County Commissioners heard testimony on Friday from family of those fishermen.

“If there is a rescue helicopter that is a half an hour, one hour away, it makes it very difficult for our men and women to survive in the cold waters. Hypothermia sets in very quickly,” one said. 

During that Friday city council meeting, the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to authorize the county to be a plaintiff in litigation over the Coast Guard helicopter’s removal. 

The Newport Fishermen’s Wives organization and Lincoln County filed their lawsuit Friday, while the state will file its lawsuit on Monday; both cases will be adjudicated in federal district court in the District of Oregon in Eugene. 

The Newport Fisherman’s Wives and Lincoln County are asking that the federal judge bar the helicopter’s removal before Dungeness crab season begins. 

“We are deeply concerned about the safety of our commercial fishing industry, especially with the opening of crab season scheduled for December 16th,” said Newport Fishermen’s Wives President Becca Bostwick-Terry in a statement. “Commercial fishing is one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations, and Oregon’s cold waters make rapid helicopter response a matter of life and death.”

Newport is the site of one of the largest crabbing fleets on the West Coast and the largest in Oregon, the county said, with the Dungeness crabbing operation one of the most dangerous jobs, and every year, the helicopter conducts dozens of rescue operations.

Lincoln County Commissioner Walter Chuck said the helicopter’s loss will “greatly impact” public safety, including assistance to local first responders and search-and-rescue teams, citing the chill of the Pacific Ocean and speed of hypothermia. He added that there is difficulty in rescuing people using personal watercraft and that the helicopter is the most capable of quickly reaching vessels.

“The interests of Lincoln County and its constituents will be irreparably impaired if the Coast Guard removes the Newport search and rescue helicopter from our community or otherwise materially reduces the operational capacity of the Newport Air Base,” Chuck concluded. 

In a statement, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said that the helicopter has been stationed in Newport for nearly 40 years and that moving the helicopter leaves one of the Pacific’s most dangerous stretches without timely aerial coverage, putting lives at risk. 

“This helicopter isn’t a luxury — it’s a critical part of how we keep people alive on the Oregon Coast,” he said. 

The state’s lawsuit will argue that the removal violated “federal statutory requirements and standards” that require public notice, community input and risk assessments before the Coast Guard downgrades or relocates an air station or essential rescue asset. None of those procedures, the county said, occurred. 

In a similar instance about 11 years ago, the Newport Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County officials rallied after the Coast Guard notified them that they were going to close the Newport Air Facility at the end of Nov. 2014. Congressmembers kept the station open in an appropriations bill.

The helicopter’s relocation came just before the city of Newport received indications that the Department of Homeland Security was planning on opening a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility at the local airport. The status of that plan remains unclear.