Christmas Day 38 years ago - CAP find and save

38 years ago yesterday. Christmas day.  A CAP 'find and save' on a snowy mountaintop.

They just couldn't get to where they thought the signal was coming from … until Christmas morning. The weather cleared enough for CAP Pilot Sonny Elgin to fly toward the ELT. On a second pass over the mountaintop, he spotted the wreckage, and the young girl waving at him. He radioed the unbelievable news: “there is at least one survivor.”

The first helicopter on the scene was Sky9.Pilot Jug Hill and 9NEWS Photographer Chuck Richardson took a Civil Air Patrol volunteer who had medical training with them.

When they got there, not knowing how many people survived, they heard something unusual: People singing Christmas carols from inside the wreckage. Osborne was the first to reach the survivors.

http://www.9news.com/mobile/article/features/38-years-after-plane-crashes-on-mountaintop-woman-meets-heroes-behind-true-christmas-miracle/502148353

This is a great story.  Thanks for posting it.  There's a map of the approximate site here:  http://planecrashmap.com/plane/co/N2013P/   It looks like the terrain would make it a really tough place to reach, especially with the weather described in the 9News link.

This looks like the NTSB accident report:  https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=32868&key=0


Tail number
N2013P

Accident date
December 23, 1979

Aircraft type
Piper PA-23

Location
Grand Lake, CO
Near 40.4 N, -105.88333 W 

My first winter encampment was not that far from the crash site - about 70 miles (and two hours by road). Really beautiful country North West of Denver / Boulder. But near impassable in the extreme snow.

In my very cursory search didn't find any accessible online news reports from the great dark ages (before internet and the True History of humankind) of 38 years ago.  The Denver Post might have some interesting background material, as might the Fort Collins media or the Rocky Mtn NP archives.

In light of a couple other threads here, I was expecting someone to jump on the fact that the first responder on the scene was a CAP member with medical training.  A very rare happening.

In light of a couple other threads here, I was expecting someone to jump on the fact that the first responder on the scene was a CAP member with medical training.  A very rare happening.

Dunno.  My sqdrn has a couple of RNs, at least 3-5 EMTs, a whole raft of 1st aid card holders, and a few attorneys.  I think that covers the medical front. 

In light of a couple other threads here, I was expecting someone to jump on the fact that the first responder on the scene was a CAP member with medical training.  A very rare happening.

Dunno.  My sqdrn has a couple of RNs, at least 3-5 EMTs, a whole raft of 1st aid card holders, and a few attorneys.  I think that covers the medical front. 

Attorneys? Yikes, run and hide.