JUNEAU, Alaska -- A hovering Coast Guard helicopter hoisted five tourists and their pilot safely off a glacier Saturday after they spent part of a blustery night huddled in a makeshift igloo.
None of the six suffered major injuries, said Steve Lewis, head of a search team that packed tents, food and cold-weather survival gear through blowing snow to help the tourists make it through the night."Tourists is almost derogatory for these people," Lewis said, recalling the scene as his crew approached the upside-down helicopter turned into a shelter. "These people were survivalists. It had snow blocks built around it like a big igloo."
What began as a routine sightseeing flight over Juneau's spectacular glaciers and ice fields on Friday morning turned into a full-blown search for three downed helicopters in gathering darkness.
The original helicopter, owned by Temsco Helicopters of Juneau, flipped over in flat lighting conditions that can make distinguishing the glacier from the sky almost impossible.
"Up there, it's just so white and so flat, you can't tell where the ground is," Lewis said.
Petty Officer Mark Hunt said the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating.
When the flight failed to return on schedule, the company sent out four people in two more helicopters to search. They both wound up flipped on their sides more than a mile from the original crash site, which is about 20 miles north of Juneau and 4,500 feet up the glacier.
The company called the Coast Guard, and the search-and-rescue team was dropped onto the glacier in slightly better weather conditions well below the crash site.
Bob Bartholemew of Capital City Fire and Rescue and the rest of the team hiked three hours across the ice in snow and gusty winds, using headlamps to see as darkness fell.
"You could see maybe 50 feet," he said. "We were shouting for them."
The high-pitched yell of a woman led the team to the upside-down helicopter.
The tourists and their rescuers wound up huddled together in two tents after the makeshift igloo began to melt.
"It was still wet and cold and somewhat miserable, but everybody was in wonderful spirits," Lewis said.
When daylight arrived, the glacier was still shrouded with fog, clouds and snow, but a Coast Guard helicopter piloted by Cmdr. Karl Baldessari managed to hover above the site and lower a basket to hoist the six people from the original helicopter.
Worsening weather kept Baldessari from returning to the crash site, so the rescue team and the four Temsco employees hiked down the glacier and set up a makeshift helipad where the Coast Guard was able to land and pick them up.
The six injured people were taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital, where they were treated mostly for cuts and bruises.
They took their helicopter trip while on a cruise.