Little Bear climbing accident and rescue helicopter crash
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Sounds like a real epic is shaping up down there. I hope everyone is ok. I hope what I've heard is way off. |
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This report has troopers saying no one was hurt in the crash. Hopefully that's the case. |
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9news.com/news/article.aspx…
ALAMOSA - A helicopter made a hard landing on one of the most difficult mountains to climb in Colorado on Tuesday night. It happened on Little Bear Peak, which is near Alamosa. It reportedly a Chinook helicopter from Buckley Air Force Base that was there to rescue a climber. Buckley Air Force Base says the hard landing happened around 7 p.m. when the tail of the chopper hit part of the mountain. The pilot was able to get the helicopter down and no one on board was injured. Another helicopter from Buckley was sent to pick up the stranded crew. There is no word on the condition of the hiker or if that person was still being rescued. Little Bear Peak is at the end of the Sangre de Cristo Range and is just southwest of Blanca Peak. It is in the Rio Grande National Forest, on the border between Alamosa and Costilla Counties. Little Bear tops out at 14,037 feet above sea level. (KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation) |
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when i was in college 4 of us were trying to do little bear via an un-documented route on the west face. we were about 2/3 of the way up when one of my friends was hit by rockfall while belaying. broke a bunch of ribs, ruptured his spleen, etc. we managed to get him down, and then a jeep club at the lake took him down to an ambulance. total ordeal. |
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The Channel 7 website has some more info. |
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The Hourglass does not sound trivial as an obstacle. I hear it can be slick and wet. |
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Allen, there were SAR personnel in the heli when the rotor hit; all are okay. |
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Just got these pics from a friend of mine |
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Using military air is actually pretty common in SAR; it's already allocated budgetarily, it allows for field training that the military needs, and offers better operational means to transport personnel in a rapid manner as well as reducing the risk to rescuers by transport off the mountain of either the injured party, the rescuers, and/or both. Granted, in this case, a heli-accident happened, that will be reviewed and discussed. |
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I do have a bit of experience with helos and yes air support is crucial to rescue efforts. |
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I was on the rescue and most of the reports I have heard are in-accurate. Overall the situation was very unfortunate but it was remarkable that the chinook was able to thread the needle and make a safe crash landing. Impressive work by the pilot for saving lives through extreme skill after losing a rotor. Hearing from one of the rescuers that was in the crash and immediately after hiked to the victim and bivied at the site, the helicopter was attempting to offload the rescuers onto the ridge (at this point he was assumed to be alive) and a draft sent it into the cliff. We even found rotor fragments at 13,000 feet over 1000 feet above the crash site. |
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Wow, Lucky no one got hurt. Sorry to hear about the climber. Anyone know what happens to the chopper now? |
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yes. in the distance from that last picture you can see a tan tent. That is the security detail that was sent to secure the chinook wreckage. The soldiers on that detail told me that they would start moving equipment in today to begin disassembly as soon as possible. It will be taken apart and flown out. |
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Not to criticize, wouldn't be my place, just curious: Why send in such a large helicopter, is a Chinook all the more stable with counter rotors, more so than a Huey or a Black Hawk? |
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It's actually a good question. |
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I was an air traffic controller in the Army and was good friends with lots of chopper pilots and crew chiefs. One pilot I talked to (originally based out of Fort Lewis Washington and a Congressional Medal of Honor winner) said that he preferred the Chinook in high altitude rescues for precisely the reason of what happened here. If one rotor fails, they've got a better chance of putting it down safely with one still operational. This guy had done numerous rescues on Rainier and even had to pull a Jet Ranger (military name Kiowa) off of a glacier high on the mountain. They just removed the blades and slid it in the back. |
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This brings to mind the tragedy last summer of the Black Hawk that went down near the summit of Massive, I believe it was. My nephew is a gunner on a BH and knew the guys who were killed in that crash. He'd been out on BH training missions on 14ers during November of 2008. I understand that, given air and air currents are so unstable above 12,500 during the heat of summer, it's believed that the air mass was so different towards the summit that the chopper lost loft and crashed. I would tend to agree, then, that the Chinook is the better choice, at least for summer Rocky Mountain rescues. |
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we have had UH 60s land on the summit of Pikes Peak, but they have to drop weight and be light on fuel. Chinooks come right up, and yes, the kid that drove off Pikes Peak a few years ago was transported from the summit in a Chinook. A UH 60 had initially come in (I dont know what variant it was) and the pilot was unable/unwilling to make the moves for the hoist operation, bailed, and called for the chinook.(it took a enough time for the chinook to arrive that they were able to get the kid to the summit) |
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I fly daily in an A-Star and love how they handle altitude. Flying in the mountains is a skill that takes time to learn in any helicopter. Understanding the wind currents and how to change depending on when and where you are is very important. I'm glad to hear no one else got hurt during this SAR. |