RAWLINS, Wyo. -- A small plane called to transport a patient between two Wyoming hospitals crashed while trying to land, killing three members of a Colorado air ambulance team and critically injuring a fourth, officials said Wednesday.

One of the people killed in the Tuesday night crash had survived an air ambulance accident two years ago.

The dead were identified by officials as Timothy Russell Benway, 35, of Georgetown, Colo., Jennifer Theresa Wells, 30, of Kersey, Colo., and David Linner, 36, of Steamboat Springs, Colo. Benway was identified as the pilot and air ambulance director. Wells and Linner were flight medics.

The lone survivor is Timothy Baldwin, 35, of Steamboat Springs. He was identified as an emergency medical technician. Baldwin was taken to Carbon County Hospital in critical condition.

Debbie Taylor, an operations officer with the Federal Aviation Administration, said the a 1978 King Air E-90 turbo prop airplane was en route from Steamboat Springs to Rawlins when it went down shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The four people on the plane were Yampa Valley Medical Center employees.

Baldwin spent an hour-and-a-half giving directions to his rescuers via cell phone, then waited 2½ hours after his cell phone battery died, before rescuers arrived.

The plane also transmitted an emergency signal which was used to eventually locate the wreckage and rescue Baldwin at 1:50 a.m. Wednesday. The wreckage was located about three½ miles northeast of the Rawlins Airport.

The plane crashed just below a ridgeline in rough, snow-covered prairie, sliding about 300 yards before coming to a stop.

"The snow was real hard, and people were getting stuck (trying to reach the plane)," said Dwight France, the airport manager.

Rescuers had to pry the plane open to get to Baldwin. He didn't reach Carbon County Hospital until 4 a.m., more than 6 hours after the crash.

"He was extremely cold, and I would suspect that he had hypothermia," France said.

"All of us at Yampa Valley Medical Center are deeply saddened and shocked at this tragic loss," Karl Gills, the medical center's CEO, told the Steamboat Pilot & Today. "All of those aboard are committed to providing extraordinary care to their sick and injured patients. Our entire organization and those who worked with the air ambulance program have been impacted."

According to Bob Maddox, co-owner of Mountain Flight Services, Benway had been employed by Mountain Flight Services as a pilot for two years. He had extensive mountain flying experience and several thousand hours of experience flying King Air-type aircraft, Maddox said.

Linner had been a flight nurse with the air ambulance since September 2001 and had directed the service since the Spring of 2003. Wells had been working at YVMC since July 2004 and had recently joined the air ambulance crew. Baldwin has been a flight medic on the crew since April 2004.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.

The plane had been called to take a patient from Carbon County Hospital in Rawlins to the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper. Shortly after 10 p.m., Yampa Valley Medical Center was notified that the plane was overdue at the Rawlins airport, 150 miles north of Steamboat Springs.

About that same time, officials received a cell phone call from a crew member saying the plane had crashed. The crew member was not identified.

David Copley, science and operations officer for National Weather Service in Cheyenne, said there was light snow, fog and a few clouds near Rawlins at the time of the crash, with visibility of about two miles.

The plane was registered to Mountain Flight Service Inc., a charter company in Steamboat Springs.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive in Rawlins Wednesday to begin their investigation into the cause of the crash.

This is the second time in less than two years that a Yampa Valley Air Ambulance plane has gone down. On March 19, 2003, an air ambulance crashed near Kremmling, Colo., in an incident that was blamed on pilot error. The pilot, who survived, was later fired. Two other people on the plane -- including David Linner -- escaped with minor injuries.