Inside vintage Air Force search and rescue operations

How Air Force Rescue Tracks Missing Planes

The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center receives an urgent alert regarding an overdue Cessna 182 and quickly works through flight telemetry and weather conditions to determine where the aircraft went down.

Inside the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center

A hiking trip turns into a double missing persons case.

Major Tubb receives a priority dispatch call detailing how an injured hiker became trapped in a cave and her companion vanished trying to return to her side.

Urgent Emergency Call for Missing Hikers

Scrambling military helicopters for an emergency airlift.

Rescue coordinators orchestrate with Army Forces Command to dispatch helicopters and stage fuel trucks for a wilderness medical evacuation.

Mobilizing Military Helicopters for Cave Rescue

Tracking emergency beacons before modern GPS.

Air Force rescue controllers correlate multiple emergency locator transmitter signals to pinpoint the most probable crash site in mountainous terrain and scramble an HC-130 aircraft.

Pinpointing Downed Aircraft from Distress Signals

A race against freezing nightfall in the mountains.

A county sheriff and rescue center staff urgently coordinate additional Civil Air Patrol and ground search units before freezing darkness sets in.

Racing Daylight in a Mountain Search

Race against freezing temperatures to save an injured hiker.

Search crews coordinate with local sheriffs to extract an injured hiker from a rugged canyon before freezing weather sets in, concluding with a confirmed save on the mission board.

Dramatic Mountain Cave Rescue Marked as a Save

Always remember to close your flight plan.

Rescue controllers initiate an overdue aircraft alert across California, only to discover the pilot safely asleep at home because he forgot to close his flight plan.

When a Missing Pilot Is Just Asleep in Bed

Ingenious survival trick saved their lives.

Downed plane survivors pulsed their emergency locator transmitter switch on and off in response to overhead C-130 radio calls, signaling they were alive on the snowy mountain.

How Crash Survivors Signaled Planes Without a Radio

Rescue coordinators receive radio confirmation that flare drops paid off, pinpointing the downed aircraft and verifying that survivors are alive on the ground.

Air Force Radio Confirms Survivors Located

A rescue helicopter hovers over a rugged ravine to hoist injured survivors aboard by litter before the coordination team calls the family with the good news.

Dramatic Helicopter Hoist Rescue in the Mountains

[01:24] Inside the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center
[04:12] Urgent Emergency Call for Missing Hikers
[06:59] Mobilizing Military Helicopters for Cave Rescue
[09:19] Pinpointing Downed Aircraft from Distress Signals
[14:11] Racing Daylight in a Mountain Search
[18:06] Dramatic Mountain Cave Rescue Marked as a Save
[19:14] When a Missing Pilot Is Just Asleep in Bed
[20:08] How Crash Survivors Signaled Planes Without a Radio
[21:53] Air Force Radio Confirms Survivors Located
[22:42] Dramatic Helicopter Hoist Rescue in the Mountains

Inside vintage Air Force search and rescue operations

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