Hunters In Right Place, Right Time To Rescue Crashed Pilot Near Meeteetse

CowboyStateDaily ^ | 9/3/24 | Clair McFarland

[CFW]

A series of delays placed a Black Hawk pilot and a former athletic trainer in the right place and time to rescue a wrecked and hurt airplane pilot from a fire outside Meeteetse, Wyoming, on Sunday.

When the pilot’s plane went down, it had sparked a fire in the trees around him.

Steve Atencio and J.R. Larsen were out looking for big horn sheep Sunday morning so they could fill Larsen’s hunting tag, the pair told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday interview.

Atencio is a Black Hawk pilot for the Wyoming Army Guard in Cheyenne and has a background in firefighting, while Larsen worked prior as a certified athletic trainer.

[snip]

At about 10:45 that morning, both men heard a sputter, followed by a booming thump.

Atencio, who takes notice of aircraft, had seen a plane flying overhead moments earlier, but he wasn’t sure if the noise was connected to that plane sighting, he told Cowboy State Daily.

[snip]

The flames started creeping toward the pilot. Larsen and Atencio knew they had to get him out of there, the latter recalled.

Atencio, a former firefighter, wasn’t just worried about the heat harming the injured man. He was also concerned about falling trees. Even then, branches were falling.

[snip]

The two men helped responders secure the pilot onto a board and carried him gingerly downhill toward the helicopter. Then it loaded the injured man and flew away.

[snip]

He also marveled at the odds of them being there in the first place. They were on a strange route, behind schedule, and happened to be standing on a hill out of their course when they first noticed the smoke.

“Nothing about where we were headed was part of the plane,” said Larsen. “For whatever reason, that’s where we were put.”

[CFW]

It is amazing how God works.

There were so many coincidences at play in this incident which allowed the pilot to be rescued. If the hunters hadn't been where they were, off track, and behind schedule, if their phone hadn't suddenly received a signal so they could call authorities...if...if....if...then the pilot would have died before anyone was even aware the plane had gone down.

[SaveFerris]

God does do some amazing things

I experienced many of them personally

Though His timing is usually not mine

Which can be very frustrating. 😜

✝️🛐☦️🙏🙏👼😇👼😇😇😇

[OriginalChristian]

Saving

[crusty old prospector]

Bighorn sheep hunting in a forest? Maybe just glassing from them.

[Red Badger]

I once shot an elephant in my pajamas.

What he was doing in my pajamas I’ll never know...............

[Resolute Conservative]

Glassing the rock faces and ledges from below which is below the tree line. No need to climb all the way up just to locate some groups.

[Chainmail]

In 1968, I was assigned to Marine Helicopter Training Squadron HMMT-302 and one evening a friend asked me to take his place as a Crew Chief on a night training hop. I told him that I couldn't do it - I had an appointment in LA that evening. That night, that helicopter was flying near Santa Ana and the rear of the helicopter - rear rotor, engines, everything - came off the plane at 5,000 ft - a flaw in the design of the early CH-46, and the helicopter fell onto Black Star Mountain.

My Crew Chief friend was thrown out of the helicopter when the tail came off and his body landed about a mile away from the crash site. The Instructor Pilot was killed but the student was alive in the wreck and in this story, the wreck was fully on fire.

A local rancher saw the accident and drove his station wagon up to it and pulled the lieutenant from the cockpit just before it was fully engulfed.

The student pilot recovered after six months but I remember how scarred his face was and how shaky he was while he restarted his training flights.

I wish the story had a happy ending, but it doesn't: that lucky student pilot deployed to Vietnam and was killed within a couple of months.

God rest their souls.

[nd76]

I’ve actually been to Meteetse, which is about halfway between Thermopolis and Cody. Thermopolis is the best hot springs venue I’ve visited (and there are some really amazing ones along the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains, extending from Colorado to Alberta).

[CFW]

Wow. What a lucky (or Godly) break for you to not be on that flight. It’s a shame about your friends.

We do not know God’s plans but I’ve always believed everything happens for a reason even though during our time here on earth, we do not know those plans. I like to think when I get to heaven I’ll immediately find out why certain things happened as they did. THEN I’ll understand.