The Civil Air Patrol‘s National Radar Analysis Team guided searchers Jan. 8, 2017, to a Colorado Springs couple and their downed plane in subzero temperatures in a remote area about 32 miles east of Meeker, Colorado.
The couple was taken to Pioneers Medical Center in Meeker for treatment of minor injuries.
The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center assigned the search and rescue mission to CAP’s Colorado Wing at noon after the plane, a Cirrus SR22, sent a distress call and crashed into the Flat Tops Wilderness in Garfield County.
The CAP radar team was activated and produced a radar track of the plane’s path.
A plane diverted to the radar coordinates spotted the downed Cirrus and the couple outside the plane. The temperature was reported to be 18 below zero, with 2 to 4 feet of snow on the ground.
Lt. Col. Mark Young, incident commander for the mission, as well as assistant director of operations for the Colorado Wing and a member of the CAP radar team, said the team was able to nail down the crashed plane’s location within five to 10 minutes.
Only an hour and 47 minutes passed between the time the team was notified and the time the couple was hospitalized, Young said.
He attributed the mission’s success to effective planning: “We set up a unified command with the county sheriffs, AFRCC and all of the emergency service providers, allowing us to make suggestions and immediately run with them.
“It was an awesome team effort by team Colorado and the National Radar Analysis Team with their quick work,” Young said. “NRAT’s Google Earth file showed the radar track and where the airplane went down; it was emailed, so everyone had a copy and could see three-dimensionally the path the aircraft took and what the terrain was like. It was of tremendous value to the first responders.”
The radar team has participated in seven missions this year, successfully tracking its target each time, according to CAP officials.
The unified command set up among all the involved agencies coordinated on a conference call that stayed online for the entire mission.
The Garfield and Rio Blanco County sheriff’s offices coordinated resources and plans to support the mission. The High-Altitude Air National Guard Training Site in Eagle, Colorado, was activated and sent a Black Hawk helicopter to assist if needed. The Colorado State Division of Fire Prevention and Control launched its Multi-Mission Aircraft to assist with communications.
Two civilian medevac helicopters were also launched by St. Mary’s CareFlight and Classic Helicopters. Meeker Fire and Emergency Medical Services assisted with setting up a landing zone for helicopter operations if needed.
1.) Forced landing, not a crash. This pilot was collected and considerate of several factors, and he made a thoughtful decision to purposefully land off-airport.
2.) Who the heck at the CAP writes this stuff? The pilot was in contact with ATC which made this a heck of a lot easier for all involved, and there were definitely more people than just the CAP involved.
3.) See this article on the pilot’s considerations of what to do and why (seems like he made a good choice to me!): http://www.kktv.com/content/news/Colorado-Springs-pilot-talks-about-surviving-crash-410076855.html
After reading the pilots reasoning I will say he was wrong. The BRS chute is designed to descend in place and the weight of the plane would have made drift not a factor. He was at 12k when he started to have trouble. The result was a crash landing or a flat area with plenty of room to have dropped to the ground under canopy.
Cirrus training requires the pilot at that altitude to diagnose the issue and if there is no way to get the engine started again or but still have the ability to glide to a lower altitude, pulling the chute as low at 1000 feet agl is still margin enough to have a successful pull.
Amy,
If you don’t understand the value of the N’RAT system, maybe you should educate yourself before
badmouthing CAP for the good job they and others did. The PIO also did an excellent job of reporting the incident. Saving lives, and/or giving closure to families where accidents are fatal is the important thing, and not who gets the credit. The N’RAT system teams have rapidly located many crash scenes over the past few years.
If you were involved with another organization that participated, that’s great, all involved should be congratulated and have a good Public information officer.
Mr. Biggs,
Parachutes should be a last resort, this from someone who has experienced several parachute malfunctions over the past 50 years. Besides even when they open, you have no control of where a BRS system lands you. Think water, powerlines, 5pm freeways, cliffs. BRS is a great “last resort system” but should not be activated casually.
Dumb if not BRS trained, really?
I have never landed in a Cirrus under a BRS system at 12,000ft (density altitude?) but I did break a leg trying to land a parachute at 12,000ft. Consider all the facts, which we won’t know until after the investigation, before judging and making recommendations.
Aren’t we all just great “Monday morning quarterbacks”.
They are alive, with no broken backs, and I say congratulations to this pilot for evaluating the circumstances, making a decision, and using his pilot skills! Great Job!
Tom, I’ll admit that my opinion is largely informed by my experience with the CAP in decidedly non-emergency situations (like dealing with them at an airport, in the pattern, at the fuel pump, etc., or at an airport event). I’ve heard good things about the Alaska RCC but it’s my understanding that that is not run by CAP, but may be supported. My point is that we seem to be seeing a lot of CAP news releases puffed up–not sure if this is a funding thing or something else, because they sure seem interested in getting the credit. My opinion only.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been warned by many a pilot not to count on the CAP rescuing me in a crash–hence I carry a Spot on trips so my family can locate me and contact authorities, and my aircraft will get a 406 ELT in the future to eliminate the “search” part of “search and rescue” as much as possible. Not saying the CAP isn’t important, just that a lot of resources are expended on it as an arm of the USAF; we have a wing on my field and airplanes aren’t very active yet Cessna sold something like 18 new 182Ts (they put the avgas version back into production) to the CAP. Again, my observation and opinion only.
If the chute was not deployed then the pilot was not Cirrus trained and dumb to attempt the crash landing.
Then I guess with your reasoning, the people that deployed a BRS with an engine fire should be considered smart?
Google the video.
My last comment on this subject.
Non Cirrus owners who do not understand the technology make comments like yours….
Cirrus trains pilots under all scenarios, including an engine fire. The chute is deployed behind the cockpit and can be deployed fairly low to the ground (between 400 and 600 feet agl dependent on model). The chute will work even if there is an engine fire. as the plane descends flat, not nose down. The rest of the plane is also designed to take the ground impact.
I failed to find the video you mention. Please provide url. Thanks.
Great photo. The plane appears to be intact and shows the skid-mark left behind. Also, no sign of the parachute being deployed. Where do you draw the line between an off-airport landing and a crash?