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CNN Live Today

Air Force Reserve Rescue Helicopter Goes Crashing Down Oregon Mountain

Aired May 31, 2002 - 13:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin on the treacherous slopes of Oregon's highest mountain, where four people have died in two weeks. Last week, an Argentine snowboarder took a deadly slide off a glacier. Yesterday, three climbers were killed in a chain-reaction fall into a deep crevasse near the summit. Six others were hurt, and that's not counting the crew of this Air Force Reserve helicopter that was coming to the climbers' rescue. Three of the chopper's six crew members are hospitalized today. The others are basically OK.

CNN's Frank Buckley joins us with the very latest on a news conference which took place.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know, Carol, that the recovery effort is still under way on the mountain behind me. If you look back at around the 10,000-foot level, you might be able to make out a few of the figures of people up there. They're recovering the final body that remains on the mountain. This is one of the three climber who died when the group of nine climbers fell into the crevasse yesterday morning at around 9:00 a.m. local time. One body remains up on the mountain, and the recovery effort under way to bring him down.

Seven people remain hospitalized. None of the injuries considered life threatening after the rescue attempt and the helicopter crash that occurred live on television yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE ROLLINS, PORTLAND MOUNTAIN RESCUE: Flight crew all over the snow slope. Some out of the slope, some bailing out of the helicopter, blood on faces, people peeling their helmets off, very, very chaotic. I think it happens so quickly, we were all fairly dazed. And you know, it takes a minute to kind of get everybody, all right, stable, helicopter seems OK. Let's start triaging people and see who needs to get evacuated first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: And that was the incident commander who was up on the mountain at the time of the helicopter crash. He was among the people who was actually helping to attempt to get one of the climbers who was trapped up there into a litter. There about to lift that litter up into a helicopter when the helicopter crash took place. Witnesses on the ground say that someone in that helicopter actually cut the cable that was holding that litter on to the helicopter, probably saving the life of the person on that litter, and at least one of the paramedics on the ground who was hovering over the actual person on that litter at the time that the helicopter careened out of control and then began to roll down the hill. The good news is, that of those people who were injured yesterday, seven of them remain hospitalized. None of them have life-threatening injuries, remarkable, considering the video that we've all seen -- Carol.

LIN: You bet. The fist bit of good news we've heard all day on that. Thank you very much, Frank Buckley on Mt. Hood.

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