2 survivors found in Joshua Tree National Park crash

Started by Mustang, January 19, 2010, 07:52:38 AM

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Mustang

Just got word that a CAWG grount team has located two survivors in the wreckage of an aircraft crash in Joshua Tree National Park.  Rescue efforts being coordinated at this time.
"Amateurs train until they get it right; Professionals train until they cannot get it wrong. "


Flying Pig


DG

Let's hear more!   

Was there an air search?  What details?

What a great success!

:clap: :clap: :clap:

vento



Flying Pig

#5
Interesting.  I literally used to live right at the base of that mountain just under the red dot! At the north end of Desert Hot Springs.  In all the years I lived there I never saw snow on those mountains.  Rough year for weather. Now the mountains to the east, "Big Bear" is a different story.  Funny thing to, CAWG holds its mountain flying course in that exact place.  I learned how to fly canyons in that exact place.

Did they find them by ELT or did a ground team hump in?  Who actually got to the site and secured the victims for the RSO Helicopter Hoist job? Surely someone here knows?  Or is it OPSEC? >:D >:D

Mustang

"Amateurs train until they get it right; Professionals train until they cannot get it wrong. "


MikeD

Rob, check the mailing list for details, but it looks like the ground team helped with pulling them out of the airplane.

calguy

UPDATE: 2 pilots survive desert crash, fractures, extreme cold



   Download story podcast



05:21 PM PST on Tuesday, January 19, 2010


Two plane crash survivors spent more than 12 hours in their overturned Cessna suffering from broken bones and life-threatening cold but voiced few complaints last night after searchers found them on a snowy desert ridgeline, one rescuer says.

"One of the gentlemen was very, very lethargic. There's no doubt in my mind ... he was near death," said Maj. Bob Keilholtz of the Civil Air Patrol. "We talked to both pilots ... and they had no recollection of the (crash) event."

The victims were a flight instructor and student pilot who disappeared from radar scopes about 8:30 a.m. Monday while on a flight from Roy Williams Airport in Joshua Tree to Palm Springs. Their names haven't been released

When radar contact was lost, an air traffic controller alerted search officials. Civil Air Patrol teams picked up the signals of a crash-activated radio beacon and narrowed the search area to Joshua Tree National Park. But Keilholtz and about 20 other rescuers didn't reach the scene until about 10:30 p.m.

"They were trapped in the airplane," Keilholtz recalled. "They were conscious, injured and suffering from hypothermia."

One victim appeared to be in his 70s, the other in his late 50s, Keilholtz said.

The impact had ripped the engine and wing struts off the airplane. Nearby tree limbs were broken. And the weather kept changing, all of it terrible: Lightning, thunder, snow, hail, rain and biting winds.To reach the victims, rescuers had to cut the doors off the plane.

A helicopter crew made a night landing to drop off cutting equipment, sleeping bags and other gear. But it wasn't until 2:30 a.m. Tuesday that air ambulances flew the last victim to a hospital.

Through it all, the men's main complaint was the gnawing cold, rather than their broken bones, cuts and whatever internal injures that they may have suffered, Keilholtz said.

"They were real troopers," he said.

Richard Brooks


Gunner C

With the aircraft upside down, I'm surprised they had a usable signal.  Great job!  It's not the usual outcome.  Those ELTs survive hard landings but crashes are a bit different.  That's why we do what we do - eventually you'll find someone who would have died without your efforts.

calguy

Pair rescued from mountaintop



(Official Civil Air Patrol Photo) Search-and-rescue experts with California and Riverside County fire departments cope with bad weather and rugged terrain as they extricate two men from a crashed Cessna aircraft late Monday night.
By Jimmy Biggerstaff
Hi-Desert Star
Published: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 2:46 AM CST
JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK — A student pilot and his flight instructor were trapped for about 13 hours on Joshua Tree National Park's highest peak Monday while rescuers hiked to find them. Rocky Harvey of Joshua Tree and fight instructor Warner Henry lifted off in a single-engine Cessna 172 aircraft at 7:30 a.m. from Roy Williams Airport in Joshua Tree en route to the Palm Springs airport, which put their flight path over the park. The plane crashed on the east side of Quail Mountain.

Bob Buhrle, a Yucca Valley resident and captain in the Civil Air Patrol, said the patrol got a general location of the crash using the emergency locator transmitter on the aircraft and a direction-finding device used by CAP people on the ground.

The air patrol relayed its information to ranger Dan Messaros, who had sent a small team into the field by 3:30 p.m. to begin the hunt.

Messaros called out the Joshua Tree Search and Rescue Team, and crews went into the field about 8 p.m. Monday, Zarki stated.

"We made two attacks on the mountain," Maj. Bob Keilholtz of the Civil Air Patrol said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

"The first one was the park ranger and myself and it was kind of a hasty search, as it was getting dark. The squall line was just coming through," he recalled.

High on the mountain, the rain had turned to snow, and the two rescuers were slipping on the rocks. Conditions got too dangerous to continue.

The two backed off and returned with a larger team.

Now working in the dark and snow, the crew hiked back up the mountain, carrying specialized equipment to extricate the victims.

"The wind was howling through there," Keilholtz said.

No one knew if the men were dead or alive.

When the rescuers found the wreckage, it was upside down and neither man was visible.

"I looked at it and said, 'This is bad,'" Keilholtz recalled.

One of the searchers yelled out, "Is anybody there?"

"Yeah," came the faint reply. "Help us."

Using a high-intensity light, the crew advanced on the plane and found both men were suffering from hypothermia as well as multiple fractures.

"At the point we got there, they weren't complaining about any of the fractures, they just said, 'Warm us up, warm us up,'" Keilholtz said.

"They were beyond the point of feeling pain from their injuries. They were in deep hypothermia."

The team got the two men out of the plane, cutting through the wreckage to get to Henry, who was blocked by a seat.

A Riverside County sheriff's helicopter hoisted the two injured pilots from the crash site to the Juniper Flats trailhead, where they were transferred into a Mercy Air helicopter around 2 and 2:30 a.m.

They were taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.

Family waits for news of fliers

May Fasano of Yucca Valley, Harvey's daughter, went to the search-and-rescue command post about 11:30 p.m. Monday to be with her father after he was rescued from the crash and was awaiting airlift to Palm Springs.

Fasano said her father had tried to escape himself.

"After they crashed, he was able to get out of the airplane and crawl to the peak of the mountain to try to get a cell phone signal, but had no luck," Fasano said.

"He crawled partway down but got tired, so he fell asleep and woke up with rain pouring down, so he crawled the rest of the way back to the airplane and waited until they were found.

"All day yesterday we didn't have too much news," Fasano said. "It didn't give us much hope. It was overwhelming, the relief when they called about 11 o'clock last night to tell us he was alive. We'd been all day without hearing anything."

Harvey has a broken leg that will require surgery, but doctors plan to wait five to 10 days for the swelling to subside before operating, Fasano said.

Harvey's family thanks everyone involved for getting him and flight instructor Warner Henry out alive.

Henry has 13,000 flight hours and was characterized by Park Richardson, owner of Roy Williams Airport, as "an excellent, excellent pilot — the best pilot I've ever seen."

"They caught a downdraft and went straight to the ground," Richardson said Tuesday after talking with Henry in the hospital.

"They were going about 125 knots. Warner managed to get that speed down to about 60 knots before impacting. Warner saved the day by doing that."




Photos available @ http://picasaweb.google.com/SARGuy76/10M00xx#

calguy


MikeD

Amazing find if someone spotted them upside down in the snow.  The airborne pics need to go into the scanner training course.