Abraham Louisiana

crash. A later assessment by a senior medical professional
at the scene determined none had sustained lifethreatening
injuries, but some had broken bones and
other injuries that precluded them from walking, and
four were trapped in the wreckage.
Weather conditions and terrain worked against the
survivors. A snowstorm was raging, adding to the 300
inches of snow the region had received in the previous
six weeks, and the crash site was on the side of a wooded
mountain that rose at the steep angle of 60 degrees.
Still, the crash site had its benefits. It was within a
few miles of a major ski resort, and railroad tracks ran
nearby — both factors that would loom large in a rescue
attempt. Best of all, help was on the way, including
members of the West Virginia Wing’s Mercer County
and Beckley composite squadrons.
Just reaching the scene
the first of many struggles
As soon as he heard about the crash from the Air
Force Rescue Coordination Center, Thorn contacted the
local CAP units, letting them know the Navy had been
in communication with the downed copter and that all
17 aboard had survived. At the Mercer County
squadron, Capt. Stephen Antolini supervised his team
members as they loaded a CAP four-wheel-drive truck
with 24-hour packs, water, cold weather gear, blankets
and sleeping bags.
CAP ground team members traveled as much as 150
miles on snowy roads to reach the area while Thorn
managed the incident from a remote location.
With the sun almost down, a West Virginia Army
National Guard HH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, with
help from a C-130 airplane, succeeded in locating the
crash site. When landing the helicopter proved
impossible because of conditions on the ground, two
medics were lowered on ropes within 200 yards of the
wreckage.
When the medics landed, however, they found
themselves neck-deep in snow. It took them another 2½
hours to reach the crash site. Not much later, CAP
members were in the area.
In a straightforward assessment of the situation,
Maj. David Chaney of the Beckley squadron said
Citizens Serving Communities...Above and Beyond
43
simply, “The challenges we addressed were severe snow
cover, remote patient recovery and remote
communications.”
Necessity is the mother of invention
Thorn knew more equipment would be needed to
pull off this rescue than what his CAP volunteers had
with them. This is where having a large ski resort in the
area proved crucial. Besides providing portable heaters,
backboards and sleds, Shavers Fork Fire Rescue Inc.,
near Showshoe Mountain Ski Resort’s Silver Creek
lodging area, also dispatched rescuers on snowshoes,
which helped tamp down the snow to make it easier for
others to navigate. Thorn also was thankful to the resort
for its ski slope groomers and Sno-Cats.
But the extreme depth of the snow was more than a
match for even this heavy equipment. That’s where the
railroad tracks came into play.
From 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. the following day — 16 long
hours — the rescue operation went like this:
Those who could walk were led down the slope
toward transportation, while the most severely injured
were carried down the mountain one at a time by sleds,
which required a four-man team to pull them more than
1,000 yards down the steep grade. A groomer, perched
atop the railroad tracks, was waiting at the bottom but
Equipment like this Sno-Cat, provided by a nearby West
Virginia ski resort, was critical for extracting 17 survivors from
the remote mountainside crash site of a downed Navy MH-60S
Knighthawk. The chopper crashed into the mountain near
Elkins, W.Va., during a snowstorm.
www.gocivilairpatrol.com
Photo by Capt. Stephen Antolini, West Virginia Wing