Joanne Whitney Walters of Kilmarnock was enjoying a peaceful afternoon of boating and bird-watching at Dameron Marsh in the Northern Neck when a helicopter went down.

The crash occurred Friday about 1:30 p.m. in a secluded area of the Balls Neck portion of Northumberland County along the Chesapeake Bay. Walters saw -- and heard -- the whole thing happen. Coast Guard and Virginia Marine Police responders say her quick reaction may have saved the two men aboard.

"I was out on my boat and had stopped to relax on a small beach. I had just pulled out my beach chair and book when it happened," said Walters, 55. "It was very surreal -- like one of those pregnant pauses. I wasn't really sure I heard what I heard or saw what I saw."

Jack Gilbert Cornelius Jr. of Norfolk was piloting the small chopper owned by Chesapeake Bay Helicopters of South Hampton Roads. It had been chartered by the passenger, Kevin Edward Heffernan of Richmond, with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Heffernan was conducting an environmental survey, said a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Walters had been curiously watching the low-flying helicopter hover over the marsh's shoreline for about a half hour when she realized something was amiss.

"He was flying very close to me and abnormally low. I could tell something was wrong. Then he just disappeared over the tree line, and I heard 'flap, flap, flap' and a huge splash."

The aircraft had gone down in a salt pond in a remote part of the marsh.

Walters quickly used her cell phone to report what she had witnessed to the Northumberland Sheriff's Office. Afraid the response might be too slow, Walters then called Virginia State Police. Within 10 minutes, she saw a Virginia Marine Police boat heading up Mill Creek nearby.

"I determined that they were possibly en route to the crash scene, except they were going the wrong way," Walters said, "so I got back in my boat and took off after them and caught up with them. I advised them of what I saw and heard, and they took off toward the shoreline."

Together with another boater, Walters continued to scour the portion of the marsh where she suspected the helicopter had gone down. As a bird-watcher and a nature lover, she's familiar with the area.

Meanwhile, fish-spotter planes from Omega Protein in nearby Reedville circled overhead assisting in the search effort.

"Because the helicopter went down in the marsh, and was surrounded by tall marsh grasses, it was impossible to spot them from the water," Walters said.

Once she reached impassable shallow waters, Walters swam to shore and spotted the helicopter, tipped on its side.

"I could see the aircraft but couldn't reach it on foot because of the mud and marsh grass," she said.

The fish-spotter planes located the helicopter shortly after 2 p.m. and alerted the U.S. Coast Guard, which dispatched its own rescue helicopter, one out of Elizabeth City, N.C., that happened to be in the area on another mission.

John Massingill, a search-and-rescue specialist with the Coast Guard, said the downed helicopter's two occupants were stuck in the marsh next to the partly submerged aircraft. The Coast Guard dropped a rescue swimmer to assess the situation.

"They couldn't swim out and they couldn't walk. The only way to get them was to hoist them out by rescue basket," he said. "It was a dire situation. If they had been left out there they would not have survived. They were very fortunate that someone saw them."

Walters downplayed her role, saying she did what anyone would have done by reporting the crash and trying to help.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," she said.

The two men were taken to an airfield in Middlesex County where they refused treatment for minor cuts and scratches, Massingill said. Neither was available for comment today.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, said Sgt. Tom Cunningham, spokesman for the Virginia State Police. He said the Federal Aviation Agency has chosen not to investigate the matter. Wesley P. Hester reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.