(National Guard) Helicopter Crashes During Rescue Attempt

A tragic event happened on Mt. Hood at about 1:50 p.m. A National Guard Black Hawk helicopter crashed while trying to leave the site of a rescue, above a crevasse, where nine climbers fell this morning.

The helicopter appeared to be attempting to leave the scene. While the craft was turning, blades from the chopper clipped the mountainside and the craft tumbled down the steep slope.

Sgt. Alan Alderman with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office was monitoring the helicopter radio transmissions. "I heard 'chopper's going down, chopper's going down. Blackhawk down,'" he explained to kgw.com.

The craft is now sitting on it's top, upside down, on a snow field. A number of climbers and rescuers have now reached the crash site. The helicopter was carrying five National Guard crew members, there were no rescuers aboard. The crew included one pilot, a co-pilot and three others.

The cabin of the Black Hawk appears to be well-intact, possibly indicating the crew may have survived.

Rescuers are airlifting critically injured climbers off Mt. Hood in a high-elevation rescue from a deep crevasse near the summit.

Officials confirmed three people are dead, four are in critical condition and two others are less serious. The injured include an assistant fire marshall and four off-duty firefighters, according to officials at the scene.

Crews aboard two Black Hawk helicopters hovering over the crevasse are working to airlift the critical patients off the mountain one-by-one. One man was already rescued and transported to Legacy Emanuel Hospital with severe head and abdominal injuries. A second patient arrived at Legacy at 1:49 p.m., also with possible head injuries. Doctors at Oregon Health and Science Univeristy remain on standby.

The view from Sky8 showed the helicopter crews carefully lifting each patient, strapped into a stretcher, from the crevasse into the helicopter. Earlier, the crew attempted to drop equipment to the trapped climbers.

Meantime, a team of specially-trained rescue climbers set up a triage unit on the snow-covered mountainside. They reached the crevasse with help from two CAT snow tractors. A separate group of ski patrollers skied to the accident scene with radios to help in communication efforts.

"We're equipped with oxygen tanks, basic life support and specialized climbing gear,” rescuer Steve Rollins said as he rode with his team toward the crevasse in a CAT. "When we reach them, we will set up snow anchors and put on climbing harnesses and then rappel into the crevasse. We are trained in technical rescues… There is always inherent risk for us.”

Rollins, from Portland Mountain Rescue, said conditions on the mountain are getting more risky by the moment. Temperatures continue to rise, impacting the stability of the glacier.

"It’s getting quite hot which is raising avalanche hazards as well as rock fall and ice fall hazards," Rollins said.

A paramedic climbing along the crevasse managed to make the call for help on a cell phone this morning. He works for Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue and was climbing with a group of friends who also work for Tualatin Valley. That climbing party included the assisant fire marshall, three firefighters, a fitness expert, and the paramedic who made the call, according to authorities.

He told authorities seven climbers fell into the deep crack in the glacier and it looked as though at least one person was dead, according to Angie Blanchard, spokeswoman for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. The climbers were linked together with safety ropes in two separate groups.

“He is constantly giving us information,” Blanchard said of the paramedic on the cell phone. “He told us the location and conditions of the people… several have injuries."

The paramedic was the only person in the two climbing parties who did not fall into the crevasse that is 20-30 feet deep.

The crevasse is located about 800 feet below the top of Mt. Hood above Hot Rocks and Crater Rock near the last pitch to the summit. (See map below.) It is a well-known hazard on the mountain and usually grows in size as the glacier recedes in warmer temperatures.

"It opens up in the base of final summit to the top of the mountain," said Dave Mull with the American Medical Response rescue team. He said the deep bergchrund-classified crevasse is well-known to climbers who frequent Mt. Hood.

Mull led a team of five to the injured climbers. They boarded a CAT snow tracter at Timberline that took them as high as possible. The experienced climbers then hiked the final stretch and hope to reach the crevasse around noon.

"Our job when we first reach them is to evaluate their injuries. If it's safe to stabilize them where they're at, we will. If not, we will attempt to move them to a safer location and stabilize their injuries there," Mull said.

The climbers were slowly making their way along the mountainside when the accident happened just after nine this morning.

The Clackamas County Search and Rescue Unit set up a command post at Timberline Lodge where they are planning and leading the rescue effort.

“They’re very high up so it’s going to be very difficult to reach them,” Blanchard said. “The plan may include the assistance of a helicopter as well as a team from Portland Mountain Rescue who will go in on foot.” She said Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue may help as well.

Conditions on the mountain are sunny and clear, according to KGW Meteorologist Dave Salesky. "At the 7,000 foot elevation, the temperature is 42 degrees. The wind is blowing out of the northwest at 15 miles per hour."

But Blanchard said it may still take a while to get to the climbers because of their precarious, high-elevation location.

Authorities are not releasing names or hometowns of the climbers, pending notification of relatives.

Mt. Hood is located about 50 miles east of Portland. It's one of the most climbed glaciated peaks in North America. Most climbers use the south side route which begins at the 5,800' Timberline Lodge parking area. At less than three miles, this is the shortest route to the summit.

Above the the Palmer ski lift there are three variations of the main climbing route. The Hogsback/Pearly Gates route is used when an area known as the Pearly Gates is congested or if climbers looking for more of a challenge, according to climbers who frequent Mt. Hood.

Back in 1986, a group of nine teenagers and two teachers from the Oregon Episcopal School were involved in an accident while trying to climb Mt. Hood. Nine of them froze to death. This was the greatest tragedy in Oregon climbing history.

Copter crashes during Mt Hood rescue
Washington Times ~~~ Hil Anderson in L.A. (UPI) May 30, 2002

     TIMBERLINE LODGE, Ore., May 30 (UPI) -- An Oregon Air National Guard helicopter crashed on live television Thursday during a mission to rescue a group of mountain climbers who took a deadly fall into a crevasse on Mount Hood.
     The HH-60G Pave Hawk chopper appeared to be unable to maintain altitude as it hovered near the stranded climbers and then rolled over and over more than 1,000 feet down the steep snow-covered slope after its rotor struck the side of the mountain.
     The airmen aboard the copter survived the harrowing crash, which took place in full view of news helicopters from Portland that were covering the rescue.
     "All of the crew members are out and are being treated," said Lt. Christopher Garden, an Air National Guard pararescue jumper who was taking part in the rescue mission.
     It was not known if the thin air contributed to the helicopter's inability to stay aloft.
     "The conditions are good for rescue," Garden said. "The problem is the altitude. It is difficult to get in at that high an altitude because the air is thin."
     Three of nine climbers who fell into the crevasse near the summit of the mountain were killed. Angela Blanchard, spokeswoman for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Dept., told reporters that the toll among the helicopter crew and climbers together included five patients in critical condition and five others with non-life threatening injuries.
     Two of the injured climbers that were hospitalized were reported suffering from hypothermia as well as broken bones and cuts suffered in the fall that occurred around 9 a.m. They were identified by Portland television station KGW as Harry Slutter, 43, New York City; Christopher Kern, 40, Long Island, N.Y.; and Thomas Hellman, 45, hometown unknown.
     The climbers were not all part of the same group, but were all swept into a 10-20 foot crevasse when someone fell and slid into the groups below.
     "One or both of the two people above seemed to be having trouble with their footing," said Cleve Joyner, a firefighter from the Mount Hood area who was among the climbers that was not injured.
     Joyner's son, Cole, 14, was among those who fell into the crevasse, but was not seriously hurt.   "It was an emotional moment when I saw he was alive," Joiner said. "I had to fight back tears."
     The Mount Hood crash occurred a day after three members of another climbing party were killed on Mount Rainier in Washington. One of the victims was killed in a fall into a crevasse while two others died when a snow cave they had hunkered down in on Tuesday night collapsed during a blizzard.
     (Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oregon TV and Newspapers:

http://www.katu.com/
http://www.kgw.com/
http://www.kgw.com/livecams/kgwskycams_timberline.html
http://www.koin.com/
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/ <---The Oregonian
http://www.registerguard.com/ <---Eugene, OR

Washington TV and Newspapers:

http://king5.com/
http://www.komotv.com/
http://www.seattletimes.com/

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