Aftermath of a Fall -- This one turned out well

by Tim O'Neil on his blog http://timospgblog.com/ - Wednesday, September 29, 2010

None of us wants to leave a three-day flying weekend knowing that we are leaving one of our own injured and alone in the mountains. We all want, even less, to be that guy.

This weekend, at the Nor-Cal XC league event; three days of flying geared towards new and improving XC pilots, one of our experienced pilots found himself down in the White mountains at around 2:30 pm and spent 12 hours lying injured on the hill, awaiting rescue.

I've heard words of surprise from some of my fellow pilots, that it took so long to get him to the hospital, but I was actually VERY IMPRESSED that the efforts of many culminated in the successful resolution of this event.

Let's work through the timeline of the event -

• Shortly after 14:00 the crash occurs at 11,000' in the Whites. No radio call is made by PilotX. No phone call is made by the pilot. It is not known if he was conscious or not.
• One of our group happens to be flying in a position where he can see this area of the White Mountains (which is approximately 1 mile East of flight tracks of those flying the task that day.)
• The pilot who knew the position of PilotX and another of our group, who had a private aircraft, fly over the crash site to verify the position of the victim and verify if he is injured.

This is the point where I got involved; Just back from goal, with no idea what's up– around 16:10.

• Once we had verification that he was on the hill and injured, with an accurate position, I called 911 to get to the local SAR teams mobilized. (I had just been talking to the Mono Sheriff SAR Sargent, 2 days earlier, and actually had asked him the best way to alert them to a problem like this - 911 was the answer)
• Stephan & I worked with the SAR coordinator and the ball started rolling by 16:30. Sunset is 1800 – I don't say it, but I know the odds are good that PilotX may be spending the night.
• The next 5 hours are spent getting SAR volunteers mobilized and up to the Barcroft Research facility. Once there, it was a mile hike – in the dark – in tough terrain, with a couple steep canyons to enter/exit/work around (you get the picture – it took them a while to hike with their 50 lb. packs of med gear and technical equipment. They get to PilotX at 1am.
• It takes a while to assess, stabilize, immobilize, and package PilotX for carry-out to a suitable LZ for the chopper, which has been dispatched from NAS Fallon (200 miles away). The Navy pilots are using IR gear to navigate at 11,000' in the terrain – it ain't easy flying – RESPECT.
• By 3am I get word that PilotX will be arriving at the hospital in Bishop for evaluation. I get word at 5 am that he is going to be transported to Stanford by air, at 7am

Why did it take 12 hours? Well, we got lucky on this one - that's why.

• BECAUSE one of our pilots spotted the crash, and
• BECAUSE another of our group had an airplane to view the scene and pinpoint the position, and
• EVEN THOUGH no radio or cell contact was made for hours, and
• EVEN THOUGH PilotX had no survival gear accessible, and
• EVEN THOUGH PilotX had not a single light source – NOT ONE. and
• BECAUSE the weather in the area was the warmest September 27th in history,

This one turned out well.

This situation, if things hadn't gone well, could have easily been a body extraction, folks.

You simply can't find someone in a mountain range, this big, without some hints. Even though PilotX's injuries weren't life threatening, he was incapable of hiking out and had no survival gear with which to buy time to allow for rescue.

The guys hiking into the site would have arrived sooner if they'd had the ability to see his position with a strobe light or headlamp. A SPOT would have been a valuable aid to pinpoint PilotX's last know position and to get rescue started in a timely manner.

Yup, we got very lucky on this one. Please carry some gear. I carry a spare radio battery. I carry a AA power source for my cell-phone, I carry a strobe light and a headlamp. I carry enough clothing that I could spend the night on the hill. A SPOT is cheap insurance. If the crap slaps the fan, at least put the odds on your side that you'll live long enough to get rescued.

If you fly XC anywhere, even in the Dunlap valley, and you don't carry some survival stuff that is accessible while sitting injured, IN YOUR HARNESS, then you are the intelligence equivalent of the idiot that hikes into the Grand Canyon in flip-flops, carrying a Diet Pepsi. Please don't be that guy.

It's not like I haven't preached about this before – My article about survival strategies and a DIY survival kit was in the USHPA mag a while back. It's available here (PDF).

The 2010 XC season is almost over for us in the Northern Hemisphere, so take some time and make a survival kit. I hope you'll never need to use it. But if I'm coordinating your rescue, I'll rest easier knowing that you have a light source, water, warmth, and can communicate.

I'd also like to send a word of Thanks to the Mono County Sheriff's Dept. and their volunteer team of SAR team members who gave up a nice warm bed to help one of our guys.

Fly Safe,
Tim

Return to Previous Page