Rescue personnel using a Black Hawk helicopter rescued a 23-year-old climber that tumbled approximately 50 feet while climbing Shortoff Mountain in North Carolina. CBS News’ Mark Strassmann reports.
The N.C. Helicopter and Aquatic Rescue Team responded about 1:00 p.m. Monday to a report that a climber at Linville Gorge fell off Shortoff Mountain while rappelling.
The team includes two members of the Charlotte Fire Department responded with a Black Hawk (Sikorsky UH-60) helicopter. While the helicopter hovers two personnel were lowered from the Black Hawk helicopter to a small cliff ledge where the climber was located. The climber had fallen 20 to 40 feet and was suffering pelvic pain.
At 5:40 p.m., the climber and his rescuers were lifted into the Black Hawk helicopter.
In a separate incident, another climber was found dead …
Gastonia Fire Department responded to a second incident near the Backside Trail at Crowders Mountain where a climber was found unconscious, bleeding and dangling from a rope. Crews used a rope-and-pulley system to lower the injured climber, who had fallen about 70 feet. Paramedics attempted CPR, but the man was pronounced dead on the mountain.
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Shortoff Mountain at Linville Gorge.
See also …
CharlotteObserver.com 1 killed, 1 injured in separate N.C. climbing accidents
Burke Conty EMS Special Operations Team
North Carolina Department of Public Safety
Helicopter and Aquatic Rescue Team
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