Army helicopter crew pulls off tricky ‘pinnacle’ landing to rescue hikers stranded on a mountain
"There is no backup camera or anything. We are the backup camera."
By Haley Britzky | Published Aug 4, 2021 5:08 PM
News Army
A CH-47 Chinook helicopter crew rescued three hikers on July 27 who’d been stranded overnight on Mt. Whitney by executing a pinnacle landing under extremely precarious conditions.
The five crew members from the California Army National Guard conducted the rescue mission on July 29 in support of the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office, according to a California National Guard press release. Because of the clouds surrounding the mountain, the crew had to readjust how they were flying in to pick up the hikers, who’d been stranded overnight in the cold with “limited supplies.”
The high altitude of the flight “required supplemental oxygen for the crew,” the release said. They found the hikers near Mt. Whitney’s 14,505-foot summit.
“The people we were looking for were ambulatory, not very well, but other hikers were helping them,” Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Aaron Mello said in the release, adding that they “hovered around a little bit” because they couldn’t see a flat area to land their aircraft. “It was real rocky, real steep and uneven.”
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-helicopter-rescue-hikers-mt-whitney/
