NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

INCIDENTS

Joshua Tree NP

Two Survive Small Plane Crash In Park

Two men survived the crash of their small aircraft in a remote area of the park on Monday. R.H. of Joshua Tree, California, and flight instructor W.H. were airlifted by helicopter to Desert Regional Hospital at approximately 2:30 a.m. yesterday morning. The two men had a variety of injuries and were experiencing hypothermia but were expected to survive. R.H. and W.H. took off from Joshua Tree on Monday morning with a plan to fly to Palm Springs. When their Cessna 172 failed to arrive at its destination, the Civil Air Patrol notified rangers, who sent a small team into the field around 3:30 p.m. to begin their search in the area of Quail Mountain, the park's highest peak. Civil Air Patrol had tracked the plane to this general area before it lost contact. Weather in the area at the time included blowing rain, hail, and snow, with sub-freezing temperatures occurring during the following night. Incident commander Dan Messaros called out the Joshua Tree Search & Rescue team (JOSAR) to support the search effort. A JOSAR team was put into the field at about 8 p.m. on Monday night. At about 10:15 p.m., the aircraft was located near the summit of 5,814-foot Quail Mountain, and initial first aid was rendered to the crash victims. Both men were trapped in the wreckage, requiring the use of battery-powered saws to remove them from the downed aircraft. They were flown from the site by a Riverside County Sheriff's Office helicopter, then airlifted to Palm Springs by Mercy Air. The crash is presently under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. At the time of the crash, 8:45 a.m. on Monday morning, weather in the area was poor with a low cloud ceiling and reduced visibility. [Joe Zarki, Public Information Officer]

HYPERLINK "http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2010/01/20/news/doc4b56c01aac69c199630177.txt" http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2010/01/20/news/doc4b56c01aac69c199630177.txt

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:

Canaveral NS - Staff from the park and several neighboring agencies participated in a massive sea turtle rescue earlier this month after a week-long period of unusually low temperatures immobilized hundreds of them, causing them to float helplessly and putting them at serious risk of death through exposure.

Bryce Canyon NP - The park last week hosted training for about 100 emergency service and law enforcement personnel from Garfield County - about 90% of them volunteers - on the basics of ICS. The session marked the culmination of three months of planning and years of work building a partnership between the park and county. Photo.

Northeast Region - Allen Cooper has been selected as the chief of the park planning and special studies branch in the heritage preservation, planning and compliance directorate in Northeast Regional Office. Photo.

Catoctin MP - Ranger Sally Griffin retired on January 2nd after 31 years with the National Park Service. Photo.

To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter):

NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index

Non-NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/

NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504

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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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