A rescuer is pulled into the belly of a Chinook rescue helicopter around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The wreckage of the Bell 206 helicopter that crashed into Mount Rainier Tuesday shows how the craft's tail was sheared off in the wreck.
Posted on 06/26/2002 6:02:25 AM PDT by BullDog108
SEATTLE - Rescuers pushed the limits of daylight Tuesday to lift an injured climber from Mount Rainier. The rescue happened hours after a first attempt sent one chopper crashing into the side of the mountain.
A Chinook helicopter out of Fort Lewis hovered for more than 30 minutes around 9 p.m. Tuesday over the site where rescuers had brought 19-year-old Jesse Whitcomb.
The chopper left the scene around 9:20 p.m. with the injured climber. He was reported in fair condition at Madigan Army Medical Center late Tuesday night.
Whitcomb was injured Tuesday morning when a rock hit him in the head, shattering his helmet and sending him tumbling 100 feet down the 14,411-foot mountain.
Two park rangers were expected to stay behind with the wreckage of the helicopter that crashed earlier.
None of the three occupants of the first helicopter were injured in the crash, but the incident delayed the rescue of the Whitcomb.
Two rescuers who were in the helicopter that crashed were part of the effort later to bring Whitcomb to safety from the Carbon Glacier, about 400 feet above where the first helicopter went down.
The Bell 206, went down around 4:25 p.m. at the 8,800-foot level of Liberty Ridge on the Carbon Glacier, according to Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman Maria Gillett.
Whitcomb, of Caroll Valley, Pa. was climbing with his father Lonny and one other person, ascending at about the 9,400-foot level of Liberty Ridge area, when a rock 18 inches across fell from above and hit him in the head.
When rescuers reached him late Tuesday afternoon and he was reported to be in better condition than rescuers had feared, Gillett said.
She said he was suffering from back pain and controlled bleeding, was disoriented, but did not show any major signs of head injury.
In the meantime, a total of eight rescuers were on the mountain attempting to bring Whitcomb down to the 8,900 foot level where he could be airlifted to Madigan Army Medical Center.
The helicopter crash is the second time in as many months that rescuers have hit the side of a major Northwest peak while trying to bring injured climbers to safety.
On May 30, An Air Force Reserve helicopter crashed on Oregon's Mount Hood as a medical team responded to nine people injured earlier in a climbing accident. None of the occupants of the chopper were injured, but three of the climbers died in the climbing accident.
The wreckage of the Bell 206 helicopter that crashed into Mount Rainier Tuesday shows how the craft's tail was sheared off in the wreck.
Myself, if I injure myself on a mountain and cannot crawl off it on my own, I expect to die.
Why does the rest of society have a responsibility to make some thrill seeker's life less risky?
Sounds like this guy wasn't doing anything stupid, he just got hit in the head by a big-ass rock.
There's probably a line beyond which a rescue isn't justified; however, I think this guy hadn't crossed it.
You and me (the taxpayers). Most mountain rescue organisations are staffed with volunteers, except for County ones. Military uses these ops as training exercises.
On high risk mountains like Rainer and Denali, a bond should be posted.
I agree. The rangers on Rainier try and do a good job at vetting prospective climbers, bud incompetants do slip past. On the guided ascents, the Mountaineering School is insured against accidents.
Since when is mountian climbing consider a safe sport? He was at 9,400 ft. when the accident occured. We have a small mountian here about 400 ft. that has a couple of deaths and a dozen rescues every year of "experienced" mountain climbers practicing their "sport". I think the line was crossed when he hooked up his harness.
It's what rescue squads do... like cops, firefighters, and those guys that fly the firefighting airtankers in the west.
In fact, these guys in the second chopper were probably not professional rescuers (Chinooks belong to the Army, the only dedicated rescue choppers belong to other services). But certainly many men volunteer for this type of risk, and generally the type of men that volunteer for these risks understand the type of men (and women) that have to climb mountains, and don't grudge them that.
It's not like this kid was jammed up by his own lack of preparation. He was hit by a falling rock.
d.o.l.
Criminsl Number 18F
The NPS web publishes an daily incident report called the Morning Report. Browsing thru this will give you some idea of what they are doing on a daily basis
Well, then, you are entitled to sit your quivering rump in a chair and compose a letter to the editor complaining about the taxes you pay to replace pranged helicopters.
You can even write to your Congressman and insist that this be stopped. Heck, TADSLOS identified the very military unit that conducted this rescue; you can write to the CO and tell him why he was wrong to do it.
But you can't stop people from exploring, and you can't stop others from rescuing the ones who go out a little too far on a limb. Sorry about that. All you can do is not do it yourself (I'm sure you have that covered, eh?) and complain about those who do. Waaaaaaah.
Frankly, I don't smoke and it cheeses me off that I pay taxes that go to buy welfare leeches cigarettes and then support them when smoking destroys their health, but I don't break all petulant over it, or become a Smoking Nazi over it.
The government has a lot of things it does that some of us don't like. I know people who are liberals and even radicals, and many of the things the government does they don't like either. In fact, unless it is an absolutist monarchy or dictatorship and one is the king or dictator, it is the nature of a government that it will satisfy no man in all things.
Igor Sikorsky took great pride in the use of helicopters for rescues, and all his life insisted that that is exactly why he invented the machine. It is very hard to rescue anyone in a helicopter without taking risks. That doesn't stop helo pilots from hanging it out daily (far more copters will prang on medical evacuation flights than on mountain rescues this year). Complaining about the risks others willingly take, though, is not a very becoming thing.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
You infantile thrill seeker, you! Couldn't you kids just stay at home and play shuffleboard? LOL!
You make a very good point and I have to agree with you. Thank you. You have answered my questions.
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