Sedona AZ (September 4, 2013) – Just before 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 3, 2013, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies were notified of a missing 56-year-old Phoenix man in the Fossil Creek area.
Deputies learned that the missing man began his hike on Sunday with the intention of finding two hunting dogs lost the prior week. Both dogs were wearing GPS tracking collars. Two days later on Tuesday morning, a friend of the missing man discovered a text message on his phone indicating the hiker was in distress.
The YCSO Forest Patrol rescue crew was assembled as dispatchers attempted to locate the missing man via cell phone GPS information. Friends provided the man’s description and vehicle information. After reviewing newly discovered text messages sent the prior day, the search focus was changed to the Strawberry, Arizona, area in Gila County.
Deputies began assembling a ground search effort as YCSO helicopter, Rescue 1, was launched. Just after 9:30 AM, the Rescue 1 crew located the missing man’s truck and directed a Gila County search team to that location. The truck was unoccupied and had an empty ATV trailer attached.
A short time later, the Rescue 1 crew found the man’s abandoned ATV some distance from the truck and began a grid search. At approximately 10:45 AM, Rescue 1 saw the missing man waving from an open field to get their attention. Because of the urgent need to check the man’s condition, Rescue 1 landed nearby and the observer EMT made direct contact. The man was tired and dehydrated, but did not require immediate medical aid and was flown back to his ATV.
The man told deputies that he had fallen from a ledge on Monday night and tried to get help via cell phone, but was unable to call out. He waited until daybreak to attempt a return to his ATV and also sent a distress text message from his cell phone to friends as calls did not go through. He was very grateful for the efforts of all involved in the search. He plans to return with help on another day to locate the lost dogs.
Citizens can contact the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office with information or questions at 928-771-3260.
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After an 81-minute-long record setting wing walking flight, nonagenarian Tom Lackey said he was glad to be down but also that the “very, very cold and very noisy” ride had been “rather refreshing,” according to the Telegraph.co.uk.
Lackey set a record for the flight and in the process broke his own, which he previously set in 2005 at the age of 85, the last time he became the world’s oldest wing walker. However, the 2005 flight included a loop. Lackey flew strapped to a mast atop a 1943 Boeing Stearman biplane and says he made the trip in honor of his late wife.
The flight maintained an altitude of about 1,000 feet, flying from Scotland to Londonderry, taking him across the Irish Sea. And throughout the experience, Lackey carried a picture of his late wife, Isobel, who served in the Royal Air Force.
“I mainly think of her and what she would think of me. I do think she would have been very proud. I’ve been doing all these stunts to keep her memory alive. She was a wonderful person.”
Lackey is an experienced wing walker but conceded that his latest flight was his most challenging. “It was scary at times,” he told the Telegraph, “but it’s over with now and I have broken my own record.”
Saw a program on planes needed to fight fires ..