CHARLESTON — Three hours after a Navy helicopter crashed last month in West Virginia’s snow-covered mountains, National Guard medic Casey Dunfee cracked his cable on the floor of a Blackhawk rescue helicopter to break the ice and lowered himself hundreds of feet to the wreckage below.
Seventeen crew members of the downed MH-60S Navy helicopter — suffering from such injuries as broken legs, a broken back and a crushed arm — anxiously awaited rescue as they shivered in biting winds, 17-degree temperatures and deep snow drifting higher than their heads in some places.
Gov. Joe Manchin joined the West Virginia Senate on Friday in recognizing Dunfee and other members of the Army and Air National Guard rescue team for their courageous rescue. The governor presented the National Guard with a special commendation.
“They say that with skill and determination you can expect a masterpiece,” the governor said. “That’s what you get when you call in the National Guard.”
All the victims of the Feb 18 crash in Pocahontas County save one have been released from the hospital. All are expected to survive, including a crewmember trapped beneath the helicopter when it came to rest in deep snow with its tail shorn away and its main rotor obliterated by the impact.
Though the snow and cold made rescue difficult, Adj. Gen. Allen Tackett said the deep snow helped softened the crash. “If that snow hadn’t been there on the ground, we’d probably have 17 casualties today.”
Staff Sgt. Jeremy Middleton, who walked away from the downed helicopter with a bloody nose and a few cuts and scrapes, said, “The snow got us into this, but it also got us out of it.”
Dunfee said he could hear and feel tree limbs snapping around him as he dropped via a cable from the Blackhawk hovering above the tree line. He landed near the wrecked helicopter, his weight settling into about 8 inches of snow. Not too bad, he thought, until he stood up and his feet sank down about 4 feet, the snow coming up to his chest.
Rescue Pilot Kevin Hazuka said his Blackhawk was within 7 minutes of running out of fuel when he dropped Dunfee and Hopkins near the crash site, knowing they would have to ride out the night until more rescuers could reach them the next day.
He dodged a menacing snow storm to get the first rescuers to the scene amid thick clouds, blinding snow and spotty communications with the downed craft.
Though Dunfee and fellow medic Nicole Hopkins landed near the crash scene, it took them the better part of two hours to reach the injured: They made their way one step forward, one step back, up a steep hillside booby-trapped by fallen trees and rocks hidden under snow.
Once they arrived they quickly assessed the injured. They reached two men trapped inside the aircraft by climbing up the tail, clambering atop the cabins and engines. Dunfee and Hopkins worked to stabilize the injured until other rescuers could make their way in.
The pair ran IVs to keep the injured hydrated, but the lines froze within 20 minutes. The drinking water they had with them froze, too, and had to be melted with the help of a fire.
With too few blankets, the medics and less-seriously injured crewmen would take turns standing by the fire to warm themselves before huddling up against the injured to share body heat, making sure to keep them talking and alert.
They gathered up all the candy, beef jerky, apples and other snacks the crew had with them, and shared a little nearly every hour.
Hopkins, who squeezed herself between the injured Navy men trapped inside the helicopter to warm them, said they feasted on Sour Patch Kids candy. “I’d give him two and then the other guy two,” she said. “And we had a couple of laughs,” she said — anything to keep their minds off the pain.
It took rescuers on the ground hours to nail down the helicopter’s location, but they finally zeroed in on the large orange rescue panels that the stranded crew hung in the trees and on flares they set off.
Nearly 16 hours after the crash, the first six victims walked out to safety. Five were brought out on stretchers. The last came off the mountain five hours later.
Though the official investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, Hazuka says the accumulation of heavy ice on the rotors likely brought down the helicopter, which was based at the Naval Station Norfolk, Va.
