Latest news with #AlaskaNationalGuard
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska Capitol to host military exercise, including National Guard, FBI and other agencies
The Alaska State Capitol is seen behind a curtain of blooming branches on Saturday, May 17, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Cruise ship passengers in Alaska's capital city, visitors to the Alaska State Capitol and residents could be greeted by officials in hazmat suits next week as the city hosts a large-scale military exercise. 'Operation ORCA' will test the readiness of first responders and members of the Alaska National Guard for a terrorist attack that involves chemical, biological, nuclear or explosive weapons, said Lt. Col. Brett Haker, commander of the 103rd Civil Support Team, which is putting on the exercise. Haker said ORCA is held every other year in Alaska, but this is the first time for Alaska's capital city and for the State Capitol itself, where they will stage a scenario involving an attack by fictitious Russia-based terrorists. Streets on three sides of the Capitol building will be closed to traffic for three days, June 9, 10 and 12, according to the Juneau Police Department. The Capitol itself will remain open to the public during the exercise. Haker said some parts of the scenario will involve a houseboat at or near Juneau's cruise ship docks, which welcome more than 1 million visitors per year. 'They will see us in our hazmat suits. We will have signs up, and ultimately, they'll see us entering and exiting. We'll have our vehicles — they are all like a blue Air Force color. They look civilian, but they all have lights on, and they look like, like an emergency vehicle,' he said. The exercise will involve about 100 people, he said, including members of the FBI, U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard, local police and fire departments, and local governments including the Tlingit and Haida Central Council. Some members of the National Guard from other states will also participate, and large military cargo planes will be involved. Haker credited his operations officer, Capt. Kyle Rehberg, for organizing much of the exercise but said it will also be a test of organization for everyone involved. 'Ultimately, the main purpose is to improve interoperability, so that we are all speaking the same language when we work with all these additional first responders … and we have these complex problem sets that we have to work through collectively,' he said.
Daily Mirror
30-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Miracle as hiker survives being pinned facedown by 300kg boulder for three hours
Kell Morris has his wife Jo Roop to thank as she held his head above water to prevent him from drowning when the boulder crashed onto him during a hike in Alaska, US A hiker somehow escaped unscathed after he was pinned facedown into an icy creek by a massive boulder for three hours. Kell Morris was trapped when the boulder weighing 318kg - around the size of an American-style fridge freezer - crashed onto him during a hike near a remote glacier. He credits his wife Jo Roop for saving his life as the woman held his head above water to prevent him from drowning during the ordeal on the weekend. The 61-year-old man drifted in and out of consciousness as seven rescuers lifted the massive boulder off him. They were only able to reach the rambler when a dog sled tourism company which operates on the glacier overheard the 911 dispatch and offered up its helicopter to assist in the operation. Speaking today, somehow nursing just minor injuries, Kell said: "I was very lucky, and luckier that I have such a great wife. God was looking out for me... When it first happened, I was doubtful that there was going to be a good outcome." Kell and Jo decided to hike near Godwin Glacier near Anchorage, Alaska on an isolated and undeveloped trail behind a state prison. Their trail was actually a rocky creek bed lined with large boulders deposited by the glacier. They managed to dodge several large boulders until they reached a particularly hazardous spot. Kell, originally from Idaho, said: "The whole side slid out from under me." He tumbled down the embankment about 20 feet (six metres), landing face down in the water. Kell landed under rocks, in between his legs and around him which caught the weight of the boulder, preventing him from being crushed, the fire service said. However, the huge rock still had him pinned, and Kell felt intense pain in his left leg and waited for his femur to snap. Jo, who works for a police department in Alaska, tried to free him for about 30 minutes, putting rocks under the boulder and trying to roll it off him, before she left to find a mobile phone signal. She managed to get signal, and relied on her law enforcement experience to send exact GPS coordinates to dispatch. Seward Fire Chief Clinton Crites praised Jo and the support from the dog sled firm. He added: "I think if we hadn't had that private helicopter assist us, it would have taken us at least another 45 minutes to get to him, and I'm not sure he had that much time." Kell was battling to prevent hypothermia when the rescuers used brute force to haul the boulder off him. An Alaska National Guard helicopter lifted them out of the creek bed with a rescue basket. The hiker spent two nights at the local hospital for observation but walked away unscathed. Mr Crites said: "I fully anticipated a body recovery, not him walking away without a scratch on him."
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Alaska Bush Pilot Community Rallies to Find, Rescue Family Whose Plane Crash-Landed on Frozen Lake
Alaska's tight-knit community of bush pilots came together in a big way this week to help save one of their own. Thanks to their coordination and efforts, the Alaska National Guard was able to rescue a missing pilot and his two daughters, who'd crashed into a frozen lake on the Kenai Peninsula Sunday night. They'd spent around 12 hours on one of the wings of the partially submerged plane by the time the airborne cavalry arrived, according to the Associated Press. The National Guard confirmed with Alaska's News Source that the pilot and his daughters were rescued from the half-sunken plane around 10:30 a.m. Monday, and taken directly to a hospital, where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The plane was first reported missing around 10:30 p.m. Sunday by the pilot's father, John Morris. This kicked off a series of social media posts by family friends and other concerned locals, some of whom joined the effort to search in their own planes Monday morning. 'I'm proud of the guys that stepped up and went out and helped out,' a family friend and one of the original posters, Scott Holmes, told reporters. 'My daughter told me there was 420 shares on my post.' Terry Godes, of Soldotna, was 'one of the guys,' and the pilot who first got eyes on the crashed plane. Godes tells Outdoor Life that he'd seen another Facebook post by his friend Leonard Perry late Sunday night. Perry asked anyone who was able to help search for the missing plane to rally at first light on Monday. 'He is a friend of mine, and if he asks for help on a search, and I'm available, I'm in,' says Godes, who flies a special kind of Super Cub, a StolQuest 2. 'So I contacted him Monday morning to coordinate our flights.' Read Next: The Bush Plane Engine Died Mid-Flight — and Other Close Calls While Flying the Alaskan Wilderness The missing pilot and his daughters, who have not been identified, were reportedly on a sightseeing trip from Soldotna to Skilak Lake when their Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser went down Sunday evening. Tustumena Lake, which sits at the foot of Tustumena Glacier, was their last known cellular location, according to Dale Eicher, another local pilot who was involved in the search and shared details with ANS. 'There were half a dozen other [pilots] that were in the air between Skilak and Tustumena,' Godes says of the coordinated search. 'I was just the guy that saw the plane first.' He told the AP he was heartbroken when he first saw the wreckage. Then Godes saw the three figures on the wing waving at him, and he immediately radioed in their location. Eicher, who heard the call on his radio and was still in cell range (unlike Godes), relayed the GPS coordinates to the Alaska State Troopers. The Troopers then coordinated with the National Guard, which sent out a C-130 transport plane and a rescue helicopter. 'The C-130 guys and the ones in the chopper should really get the credit,' Godes says. 'They had to come up with a non-standard recovery because the ice was too soft to land on, and the rotor wash threatened to blow the children off their safe perch on the wing. Read Next: This Happened to Me: I Should Have Died in a Floatplane Crash 'They performed a flawless, one-off recovery,' he adds. 'Those guys are solid!'
The Independent
26-03-2025
- General
- The Independent
Pilot, children survive 12 hours on wing of submerged plane after crashing into icy lake
A Good Samaritan's swift action led to the rescue of a pilot and two children who survived nearly 12 hours stranded on the wing of their downed plane in a frigid Alaskan lake. The small aircraft, a Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser, crashed into Tustumena Lake on Sunday during a sightseeing trip. Terry Godes, after spotting a Facebook plea for help with the search, took to the skies Monday morning. Flying near the glacier-fed lake, he noticed what initially appeared to be wreckage. "It kind of broke my heart to see that," Godes said. However, as he descended for a closer look, a glimmer of hope emerged. "I could see that there's three people on top of the wing," he said. He then realized the trio were not only alive but also responsive, waving to him as he approached. Godes, after a brief prayer of thanks, radioed his discovery to other pilots involved in the search effort. Dale Eicher, another pilot in the area, picked up Godes's call and, recognizing his likely better cell service, relayed the information and coordinates to authorities. The Alaska National Guard swiftly responded, rescuing the pilot and his two children from their precarious perch on the submerged plane's wing. 'I wasn't sure if we would find them, especially because there was a cloud layer over quite a bit of the mountains so they could have very easily been in those clouds that we couldn't get to,' Eicher said. But he said that finding the family within an hour of starting the search and finding them alive "was very good news." The plane had taken off from Soldotna on Sunday for a sightseeing flight to Skilak Lake on the Kenai Peninsula. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The three survivors were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, Alaska State Troopers said. 'They spent a long, cold, dark, wet night out on top of a wing of an airplane that they weren't planning on," Godes said. He said there were many miracles at play, from the plane not sinking, to the survivors being able to stay on the wing, to the three surviving the night in temperatures dipping into the 20s (subzero Celsius). 'It's a cold dark place out there at night,' he said. The plane was mostly submerged in the lake with only the wing and the top of the rudder exposed above the ice and water, Godes said. The 60,000-acre (24,200-hectare) Tustumena Lake is situated about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage and has been described by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as 'notorious for its sudden, dangerous winds.' Conditions around the lake — with nearby mountains, a glacier and gusty winds — can cause havoc for both boats and planes. The body of water is the largest freshwater lake on the Kenai Peninsula . 'Even under what would be considered a benign or relatively weak pressure gradient, the terrain helps turn the winds around, and occasionally they get a little squirrelly," said Michael Kutz, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Anchorage. Alaska is a state with few roads, leaving many communities to rely on small airplanes as the preferred mode of transportation. In February, in western Alaska, 10 people died when a small commuter plane that was overweight by half a ton crashed into sea ice in the Norton Sound, near Nome on the state's western coast. Five years ago, a deadly midair collision near the Soldotna airport claimed the lives of seven people, including an Alaska state lawmaker.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Three Rescued After Surviving 12 Hours on Icy Alaska Lake Following Plane Crash
A pilot and two children were rescued on Monday, March 24, after surviving about 12 hours on the icy Tustumena Lake in Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, following a small plane crash, according to reports. The search and rescue operation for the trio occurred after the pilot's father, who is also the girls' grandfather, flagged their disappearance in a now deleted Facebook post. 'My son is long overdue from a Sunday afternoon flight,' John B. Morris wrote in the post. 'His cell phone last pinged in the Tustumena Lake area. My two granddaughters are on board also … This is my plea for any and all to help locate my family.' According to Anchorage Daily News, the three victims were rescued by the Alaska National Guard after a local named Terry Godes located the aircraft on the surface of the lake. Dale Eicher, who supplied Storyful with the pictures showing the plane partially submerged in ice and the three survivors propped on its wing, provided the aircraft's coordinates to authorities, Anchorage Daily News reported. All three occupants were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Anchorage Daily News, citing Alaska State Troopers. Credit: Dale Eicher via Storyful
