’09 Conference Exceeds Expectations

Civil Air Patrol Capt. Steve Steinberger, left, briefs
reporter Chris Vanderveen of NBC affiliate KUSA-
TV in Denver during a reunion of Rocky Mountain
Airways Flight 217 survivors and rescuers at the
Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum.
Steinberger is pointing to the deHavilland DHC-6
Twin Otter horizontal stabilizer that carries the
crease and scars of not only the Flight 217 crash
but also the impact with the 230,000-volt hightension
line the commuter plane hit. The
horizontal stabilizer and other Flight 217 artifacts
— including a baby stroller and a wedding dress
— are on display at the museum.
our anniversary,” said Jeff Mercer.
When the plane crashed, Don Niekerk
and Jerry Alsum, neither yet 20 years old at
the time, established roughly where they thought the
downed plane might be, but the sno w was too deep for
four-wheel-drive trucks or even snowmobiles.
“I wished we had a Sno-Cat,” Alsum recalled, “and
then, along comes one,” being hauled on a tr uck. The
pair asked the driver to give them a ride on it. After
several frustrating wrong turns in the dark, they heard
screaming and found the scene.
The radio message, “We have survivors!” let Alsum’s
father, Jim, back at mission base, know they’d been
successful in their search.
For their efforts, Niekerk and Jerry Alsum were each
awarded Civil Air Patrol’s Silver Medal of Valor, the
highest decoration for CAP members. The Medal of
Valor recognizes “distinguished and conspicuous heroic
action at the risk of life abo ve and beyond the call of
normal duty.”
The pair handed their decorations over to O’Brien
for inclusion in the exhibit.
Twenty people survived a night in 1978 in the
harshest conditions imaginable, thanks to the effor ts of a
Civil Air Patrol ground team that relied on experience,
knowledge of the area and available resources to find the
downed airplane in a remote location. The ground team
members call it a miracle.
“If you know the story of Flight 217, you know one
of the great stories of emergency services in the United
States,” O’Brien, who now heads up the Colorado Wing
Heritage Project, told the crowd. “There isn’t one story
that is much better than this one.” ▲
Photo by Capt. Scott Orr, Colorado Wing
Background: Thanks to the diligent efforts of a CAP ground team and
other rescuers, 20 people survived the 1978 crash of flight 217.
Photo courtesy of Rod Hanna, Steamboat Springs Pilot
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