Life Flight crew commended for difficult rescue A pilot and his passenger are recovering at McKay-Dee Hospital from injuries they suffered Saturday when their single engine aircraft crashed on Monte Cristo Mountain.
Pilot Stripling Smith, 25, and Timothy Wiener, 26, crashed on the remote, rugged mountain 45 miles east of Ogden while flying their Piper Warrior II from Oregon to Fort Worth, Texas.Weber County Sheriff's Sgt. Klint Anderson said Smith alerted air traffic controllers in Salt Lake City at 6 p.m. Saturday that he was experiencing unspecified problems.
Two hours later, the Morgan County Sheriff's Office was notified that an airplane was sending a distress signal and presumed down somewhere in northern Utah.
The signal was traced to a steep ravine at the 7,800-foot level of Monte Cristo Mountain near the border of Cache and Weber counties. A Life Flight helicopter pilot made radio contact with Smith at 9 p.m. but was unable to provide immediate assistance because he was low on fuel and there were severe thunderstorms in the area, Anderson said.
A search-and-rescue team set up a command post near the crash site but was also hampered by the storm until about 1 a.m. Guided by the Life Flight pilot who had first contacted the downed aircraft, rescuers reached the injured men at 1:50 a.m.
Anderson said the rescuers used ropes and pulleys to pull the men up the steep terrain to a dirt road. The effort took almost two hours, he said.
Smith, a flight instructor, and Wiener, a student pilot, were flown by Life Flight to Mckay-Dee Hospital, where they underwent surgery Sunday. Anderson said investigators were unable to question the two men because of their medical conditions.
Smith was listed in serious but stable condition Monday, while Wiener was in fair condition.
Anderson had high praise for the Life Flight team, saying their assistance under less than ideal conditions was critical in saving the two men.