6-27-2018
ASHFORD, Wash. — Helicopter rescue crews sucessfully saved three people in each of the large national parks in Washington in just one day.
The National Park Service reports on Sunday, the Mount Rainier National Park-based rescue helicopter and crew first saved an 18-year-old man in the North Cascades who was suffering respiratory distress.
Crews suspended a rescuer on a line below the helicopter with the patient to evacuate him.
Later that afternoon, they performed a medical evacuation for a 55-year-old man who had been lost in the backcountry of the Olympic National Park for six days and was too weak to travel.
As the crew returned to Mount Rainier National Park that evening, an emergency beacon activated from Liberty Ridge and the crew evacuated injured climbers back to the helicopter’s home base.