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DEM #01-0602 March 20, 2001 |
The Unit was contacted by the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday the 20th of March. They needed Mountain Rescue Volunteers to participate in the search for a downed aircraft in the Greenwater area.
Earlier
Tuesday Pilot Randy Lane and his
passenger Phil Cruise departed the
Auburn airport for a flight to the area
around Mt. Rainier. When they had
not returned by that evening relatives
called 911 to report them missing. An Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) was detected by a
SAR satellite around Huckleberry Creek, about 12 miles south of the town of Greenwater.
Eight members responded to the call-out page: Jeff Sharp, Fran Martoglio, Wendy Stefaniak, Dave McElmurry, Victor Caro, Tim Greminger, Mike Mixon and Ken Capron. While three members headed to the Cache to pick up the Rescue Truck the rest drove straight to the search base at the Greenwater Fire Department; they all arrived there around 1:00 a.m.
After a briefing by Sheriffs Deputy Dan Hudson they were split into three teams. Fran and Wendy were team 1, Tim and Victor were team 2 and Ken, Mike, and Dave were team 3. The teams were inserted into the wilderness by 4X4 vehicles and snowmobiles. Team 1 and 2 were sent to the area around Frog Mountain and team 3 was sent to the area around Suntop Mountain. They carried devices called Little Elpers that were used to determine the direction and strength of the ELT signals. After being taken as far as they could by the snowmobiles, all the teams had a tough time reaching their objectives thru steep ice-covered snow. When they did, they detected only weak signals.
After sunrise aircraft were brought in to assist in the search. Around 10:00 a.m. an Army CH47 Chinook helicopter from Ft. Lewis saw some smoke in the Lost Creek drainage. Upon further investigation they found broken trees and finally saw the aircraft still burning among the trees. It was decided to insert a team into a clearing about a quarter mile from the crash sight. With our three teams still in the field Jeff joined a seven-man team consisting of three National Park rangers and three members from Seattle Mountain Rescue.
After that team was inserted, the other teams were recalled to the search base in case they were needed to help carry-out survivors. Around this time two other Tacoma members showed up: Jason Miner and Ed Hrivnak. The team that was inserted to reach the crash site found the going extremely tough through snow covered thick old growth forest and had to be directed to the crash by aircraft that could see the crash site. It was decided that if there were survivors that a carry-out would be needed; a second call-out for a standby team was made. After three hours the team finally reached the site around 2:30 p.m. to find that there had been no survivors of the crash and the standby team was released. After recovering the bodies of the pilot and passenger by a helicopter short haul, the recovery team was flown out and the last members headed home around 8:30 p.m.
Tacoma Mountain Rescue |
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