Remote crash landing

  • Published
  • By Vivian Wilson
  • Western Air Defense Sector Public Affairs
Hurlburt Field, Fla. --  Airmen of the 505th Command and Control Wing assisted in the rescue of two people who crash-landed their glider in remote southern California mountains in December by, “doing what they do every day,” said Lt. Col. Robert Mulheran, 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron commander. 

Radar analysis provided by the 84th RADES, which recently became part of the 505th CCW, was key in pointing authorities to the precise location of the crash. 

The mission of the 84th RADES, which is located at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is to monitor and assess the status of Federal Aviation Administration and military radars around the country. 

The unit is also heavily involved in programs creating a single common operating picture to assist officials in homeland security, counterdrug, search and rescue operations and flight safety. A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department helicopter rescued the instructor pilot and a student less than two miles from their last radar sighting, said John Henderson, who has been with the 84th RADES since 1999. He has personally been involved in saving 11 lives by finding air crash sites. 

“Their sailplane had been towed to an altitude of 9,300 feet before being released in the area of Mount Baden Powell in the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California,” said Mr. Henderson. 

The expected one-hour, local flight to an airport just 10 miles away became a crash landing and overnight stay when the glider flew into an area with no lift. 

The pilot crashed the sailplane into scrub brush Dec. 3. 

The two had no major injuries, although they did suffer from an overnight stay in sub-freezing weather. 

Mr. Henderson used radar data to pinpoint the aircraft’s last known location, speed, heading and altitude. From that, he determined the likely crash site. He passed the data to the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Langley AFB, Va., which forwarded the information to the California Civil Air Patrol. 

A California CAP aircrew spotted the aircraft around 7:30 a.m. the next day. Then, the sheriff’s department helicopter made the rescue. 

“Without an active distress beacon signal – or any other hard data on the aircraft’s last known position – having access to this radar data enabled us to focus the search on the most likely position where they could have landed,” said Capt. Bob Keilholtz, Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol. (Capt. Nathan Broshear, 505th CCW Public Affairs, contributed to this article.)