Rescue chopper crew seen as heroes

Pilot veered away from climbers, rescuers just before crash

May 31 -- NBC's Dan Lothian reports on the dramatic crash of a rescue helicopter on Mount Hood. The report is followed by an interview with rescuers.

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

BEAVERTON, Ore., May 31 —  Quick thinking by the crew of a rescue helicopter that crashed into Mount Hood saved the life of an injured climber as well as others nearby, a witness told NBC News Friday. The helicopter crashed Thursday, tumbling 1,000 feet as it tried to help a climbing group that had seen three of its members die when they fell into a crevasse. The crash is being investigated, with strong winds suspected as a possible contributing factor.

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May 31 — Cole Joiner tells the story of his rescue from Mount Hood. He was interviewed by “Today” show host Matt Lauer

“THE PILOTS realized they were having trouble,” Frayne Fowler, a staff sergeant with the Oregon Air Force National Guard, told the “Today” show.
Watching from a ridge 30 feet away, Fowler said the the trouble started as the six-man crew prepared to evacuate the injured climber with a gurney. “They cut the cable, which saved the life of the patient,” he said, and then the pilot “veered away from us, saving us.... He did a great job.”
Another rescuer who was on the same ridge echoed that view. “He banked left to keep from hitting us,” Mike Leming said of the pilot. “He knew he was going to kill us, so he just started moving out of the way.”
All climbers and crewmembers were later evacuated off the mountain. One crew member was in serious but stable condition Friday. The five others sustained minor injuries.
Two climbers were in serious condition — one had a head injury, and another had several broken bones.

WINDS, ALTITUDE FACTORS?
Maj. Gen. Alexander Burgin of the Oregon National Guard told “Today” that although the weather was clear there were strong winds at the time and that might have contributed to the accident.
He added that altitude might also have been a factor as the type of helicopter used is not typically flown at such heights. The accident happened at about 11,000 feet.
The helicopter crew members were identified as Capt. Grant E. Dysle, pilot; Capt. Kelvin B. Scribner, pilot; 2nd Lt. Ross S. Willson, combat rescue officer; Staff Sgt. Andrew V. Canfield, pararescue specialist; Staff Sgt. Darrin Shore, pararescue specialist; and Staff Sgt. Martin M. Mills, flight engineer.
The pilot was flying a Pave Hawk, a modified version of the Army’s Black Hawk helicopter that is used for search-and-rescue missions.
Television footage from a news helicopter hovering nearby showed the Pave Hawk appear to lose lift, then fly backward for a few seconds before its rotor blades struck the slope and sheared off, sending the main section of the helicopter rolling about 1,000 feet before coming to a rest at the base of Crater Rock.

At least three crewmen flew from the helicopter as it rolled down the slope, and the craft appeared to roll over one of them.
“We heard a big bang,” said Dave Mull, a member of American Medical Response. “It was silent, as if it was all happening in slow motion. The next thing, everybody was on radios, yelling that a bird went down.”

CHAIN REACTION
Three separate groups of climbers were ascending the 11,240-foot mountain and were about 800 feet from the summit when the accident occurred about 9 a.m. A climber who was down the mountain from the crevasse used his cell phone to call for help.
The chain reaction began when two climbers at the front of the pack slipped, falling into climbers behind them. They all crashed into the next group of climbers, and everyone tumbled into the crevasse, said Cleve Joiner, who called for help.
“The only thing I can compare it to is hockey players who throw themselves on the ice to block a shot,” Joiner said. “Everybody was sliding on the ice, and then they disappeared.”

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Joiner, the assistant fire marshal at Tualatin Valley (Ore.) Fire & Rescue, was among five people from the department who were climbing. His 14-year-old son, Cole, was among the climbers who fell into the crevasse, but he wasn’t seriously injured.

‘AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT’
“When I found out he was alive, it was an emotional moment,” Cleve Joiner said. “I just kind of fought back the tears and carried on.”
The two seriously injured climbers transported to Portland-area hospitals were identified as Christopher Kern, 40, of Long Island, N.Y., with a broken pelvis, wrist, shoulder and leg; and Thomas Hillman, 45, of California, with a head injury, contusions and possible hypothermia.
Harry Slutter, 43, of Long Island, N.Y., was in fair condition with a broken jaw and a laceration to the left eye. Jeremiah Moffitt, 26, of the Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue squad, was hospitalized with minor injuries. There was no immediate word on the condition of the other two climbers.

ONE OF LAST OBSTACLES
Keith Mischke, executive director of the Mazamas climbing club, said the crevasse, about 25 to 30 feet deep, is one of the last obstacles before reaching the summit of the mountain, the tallest in Oregon.

The Thursday accidents came as searchers completed the recovery of the bodies of three climbers who died Tuesday or early Wednesday in an accident on 14,410-foot Mount Rainier, about 100 miles to the north of Mount Hood in Washington state. One other member of the four-climber team was rescued.
The dead were male and female students from Oregon State University in Corvallis and a woman visiting from Germany, authorities said Thursday. The man rescued early Wednesday also was a student at OSU, they said.
Only one of the victims had been identified: Keeta Owens, 21, of Lebanon, Ore.
The survivor was rescued on Wednesday after falling, losing the shell of his boots and making his way alone down to 7,800 feet, where he called for help from a cell phone he borrowed from a skier, said Lee Taylor, a spokeswoman for Mount Rainier National Park.

STORM FLATTENS TENTS
Taylor said the climbers had established camp near the summit after ascending the difficult Liberty Ridge route late Tuesday when a fierce snowstorm packing 70 mph winds destroyed their tents, forcing them to dig snow caves.
She said two members of the party had managed to get into a snow cave they had built when one of the other climbers, who was not roped, slipped on an icy surface and fell.
Taylor said the fallen climber’s partner, in trying to alert the two members of the team who were already inside the snow cave to his plight, inadvertently walked on its roof and plunged inside, destroying the shelter.
“That moment when the cave collapsed was a major turning point because they now had no shelter and a lot of their gear was now buried underneath snow,” Taylor said.
“One of them ended up without a jacket because the jacket was buried in snow,” she said. “At that point their situation became quite desperate.”
The man who was rescued said he had spent the night on the mountain with the women, both of whom were still alive at the collapsed snow cave when he left to get help.
Eleven people died on Mount Rainier in 1981 when they were caught in a massive icefall in the worst single accident on that mountain.
In the last 10 years in the United States, there have been an average of 30 climbing fatalities per year, said Jed Williamson, who edits the Accidents in North American Mountaineering publication for the American Alpine Club.

MSNBC.com’s Mike Brunker, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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