NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Friday, October 16, 2009

INCIDENTS

Denali NP&P

Non-NPS Biologist Killed In Plane Crash, Pilot Survives

A Cessna 185 went down in the park on Wednesday while its occupants were engaged in an effort to find and study wolf packs. The passenger, 67-year-old biologist G.H., an independent biologist who for decades has studied Denali's wolves, was killed in the crash, but the pilot, 35-year-old D.M., was able to walk out despite suffering significant burns. D.M. and G.H. departed from a private airstrip outside the park on Wednesday for a day flight, but failed to return at dark. The Alaska State Troopers were notified that the plane was overdue around midnight; troopers then advised the park. An initial overflight of the area was made yesterday morning by a Hercules HC-130 dispatched through the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center in Anchorage, but the crew was unable to pick up an ELT signal. An aerial search ensued that involved seven aircraft from the park and several other organizations. The search focused on the north side of the park in areas that wolf packs are known to habituate. Searchers found the missing plane around 3 p.m. on a steep slope west of the East Fork of the Toklat River, about seven miles north of the Denali Park Road. A search plane was able to land later in the afternoon on a river bar approximately a half mile below the crash site, and a trooper hiked to the scene to investigate. The aircraft was substantially damaged by the impact and the post crash fire, but the trooper was able to determine the presence of human remains before increasing darkness prevented his further investigation. Although it at first appeared that both G.H. and D.M. might have been killed in the crash, D.M., despite his injuries, had in fact walked out of the backcountry, covering about 20 miles before contacting two campers at the Igloo Creek campground. They drove him to his home just outside of the park, where he first called his family to let them know he was alive, then contacted troopers. He was evaluated and stabilized by medics from the park and the Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department, then taken to a burn center in Seattle. D.M. has confirmed that the remains found at the site are those of G.H.. Rangers remained at the scene overnight and will be joined today by National Transportation Safety Board investigators. [Kris Fister, Public Affairs Officer]

Glen Canyon NRA

Rangers Rescue Four People Stuck On Cliff Face

Rangers on boat patrol in Iceberg Canyon on Lake Powell on Wednesday afternoon contacted two kayakers who were seeking assistance. They reported that four people in their party had become trapped on a cliff and needed rescue. The rangers immediately responded, and were soon joined by rangers in two more patrol boats and by technical climbing rangers who responded from Page via helicopter. When they arrived on scene, they found a teenage boy clinging to a sheer cliff face, struggling to maintain his footing on a four-inch-wide ledge 150 feet above the lake surface. Two other teenage boys were trapped in an alcove near the first boy. One boy's mother, who had attempted to rescue the three teenagers, had become trapped on another ledge 50 feet above them. Four rangers trained in technical rescue climbed to a position 200 feet above the lake surface, where they traversed a ledge to a position directly above the stranded boys. The rangers rappelled down to the teenagers, used climbing gear to secure each one - beginning with the boy on the narrow ledge - and then brought them one at a time up the cliff to a safe position. The rangers last secured the mother, who was in a relatively safe location nearby, and led all four to a location where they could rappel down to the bottom of the canyon. The rescue was completed by 6 p.m. The teenage boys were with a two-family party on a houseboat. The group had been camping in Iceberg Canyon when the three boys decided to go exploring. They were about 100 yards from the houseboat when they became stranded. The boys had climbed up and across a high ledge and then descended into an alcove, where they found that they could not climb back out. One boy, attempting to climb out of the alcove, became stuck on the nearby ledge. The mother then became stranded above the boys while attempting a rescue. None of the four individuals required medical attention, and all were able to remain with their houseboat group for the night. [Brian Sweatland, Public Affairs Officer]

Cabrillo NM

Two Rescued After Vehicle Plummets Down Hill Into Canyon

On the morning of Monday, October 12th, a park employee saw a driver lose control of his Chevy S-10 and go over a canyon edge. He was pulling into a space in the parking lot when he inadvertently hit the accelerator instead of the brake. The S-10 went over a sidewalk and down a 550-foot hill into a canyon. Although it stayed upright most of the way, it overturned just before reaching the bottom and ended up on its roof. The 91-year-old driver was airlifted out with a cervical spine fracture; his 77-year-old passenger was brought up the hill on a stretcher with pain to his chest and minor lacerations. It took more than four hours to pull the vehicle back up out of the canyon, following the same path to reduce resource damage. [Ralph Jones, Chief Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

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

Glen Canyon NRA - An important fossil discovery - tracks of an ornithopod dinosaur - was recently made in Glen Canyon during a nationwide inventory of paleontological resources in NPS areas. These new tracks may extend the ornithopod dinosaur record in North America back 20 to 25 million years earlier than previously documented. Photo.

Director's Office - Director Jon Jarvis is pleased to welcome three new faces to the National Park Service management team - Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance Mickey Fearn, Assistant Director for Communications Celinda Peña, and Special Assistant to the Director Ali Kelley. Short biographies of each appear below.

Director's Office - Mickey Fearn will serve as the new NPS Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance. This revised title for the deputy position emphasizes a new focus on specific outreach and communications to groups currently underrepresented in parks. Photo.

Director's Office - Celinda Peña, an experienced communications professional, has joined the NPS as the new Assistant Director for Communications in the Director's Office. Photo.

Director's Office - Ali Kelley has joined the National Park Service as a Special Assistant to the Director on park issues. 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/

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Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found at the following web site:

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363

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

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