The father/son pair were thrown from their horses in the thick Pampas Grass area west of the Bodega Dunes campground, between Bodega Head and Salmon Creek Beach. The men were trampled on and kicked by the horses during the incident before the horses ran off.  They suffered lower extremity injuries.

This area is covered with Pampas Grass and sand dunes, which would have made access difficult and time consuming for ground-based emergency crews to get to and treat the injured men. The Henry-1 crew located the pair, landed in the Pampas Grass area and provided medical aid to them.  The men were then loaded into the helicopter and transported to a Westshore Rd. parking lot where they were turned over to Bodega Bay Fire crews.  One of the men was transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

The horses were located a distance away and were later corralled and returned to their owner’s trailer.

On 1/20/11 at about 4:45 PM, a passing citizen flagged-down Sheriff’s deputies and reported seeing a white truck drive off the cliff on Hwy. 1 between Jenner and Russian Gulch.  Deputies investigated further and discovered a truck located about 300 yards off Hwy. 1 and down into a deep ravine at mile-marker 23.  State Parks units, and Fire personnel from Monte Rio and Bodega Bay Fire Departments responded to the scene along with Sheriff’s Helicopter crew in “Henry-1.”
The Henry-1 crew arrived within 15 minutes of the flag-down. The pilot of Henry-1, Paul Bradley, then long-lined a trained rescue crew member down to the truck where two patients, a male and a female, both in their 20′s or 30′s, were being stabilized by deputies who had hiked down to the area.  After packaging and stabilizing the patients, they were both long-lined back up to Hwy. 1 via Henry-1 for further assessment.  This greatly reduced the time, risk and resources that would normally be associated with a traditional technical rope rescue/haul system from a cliff-side trauma scene.
The male patient was flown via REACH to a Santa Rosa hospital and the female patient was transported via ambulance.  Their identities were unknown at the scene.  Their injuries did not immediately appear to be life threatening. CHP is investigating the crash.

Lake County Sheriff’s deputies and personnel from the North Shore Fire Protection District responded to a frantic 911 call from a neighbor in the 6200 block of Roland Dr. in Lucerne, CA.

On arrival, they located a teen that was stuck at the top of a 60-foot cliff, known as “Castle Rock.” The teen had been there for about two hours and was unable to make it down safely since night had fallen, which made the situation more perilous. Ground-based rescue efforts would have been time consuming, requiring additional rescue crews and tied up those resources for an extended period.

The Henry-1 crew responded to the area and rescued the teen using a horse collar device. The teen was then flown to fire crew members who were waiting on the ground. He was uninjured.

The victim was later identified as 19-year-old Jerry Michael King of Lucerne, CA. He had apparently climbed the rock before sundown but found it too dangerous to descend, especially once it got dark.  He had been on top of the rock for about two hours.

Henry-1 is equipped with state-of-the-art night vision goggles and a 50-million candle-power Night Sun spotlight. This equipment, plus regular night time rescue training, enables the Henry-1 crew to be available to perform these nighttime long-line rescues.

On 11/6/2010 at 1:16 PM the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a plane crash in the area 21877 8th Street East in Sonoma.  Officers from the Sonoma Police Department and deputies from Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene along with Fire and EMS personnel from Schell Vista Fire Department.

They located the single engine Qualt aircraft in a grassy area approximately 30 feet wide that runs the length of a 200 ft. long warehouse.  The plane was between a series of warehouse buildings along 21877 Schellville Road.

The plane was occupied by two males suffering from moderate injuries and obvious lacerations. Schell Vista Fire personnel extricated the two occupants from the plane and they were airlifted to separate bay area hospitals for their injuries. The pilot was airlifted to Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter Henry-1 and the passenger was airlifted to John Muir Medical Hospital in Oakland by REACH.

On scene damage to the plane indicates the plane impacted the ground nose first, and also damaging a cyclone fence. There was no structural damage to any buildings.

The plane had just taken off from Sonoma Skypark Airport and witnesses described the engine noise as being under low power.  The plane crashed almost immediately after take off. It cleared the runway, crossed over 8th Street East and crashed in the industrial park west of the roadway.

The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) were notified to investigate as is required in all incidents involving aircraft.  The names of the pilot and passenger are not being released until authorized by the NTSB.

On Wednesday November 3^rd, at about 4pm, Bodega Bay Fire Department, State Park Rangers, the U.S. Coast Guard and “Henry-1,” the Sheriff’s rescue helicopter, were dispatched to the Bodega Head for a rescue.

An Omaha, Nebraska man in his mid-twenties had been walking on the beach below and was eventually cut off from returning due to the incoming waves.  He then attempted to scale up the steep western-most face of the cliff from the bottom.  He became stranded about 40-feet up the cliff, with another60-feet yet to go.

The Henry-1 crew arrived at about 4:11pm, set up for a long-line rescue, flew out and retrieved the victim without incident. He was uninjured but relieved.

The Henry-1 crew routinely trains for this exact type of rescue along the Sonoma Coast. A Henry-1 long-line rescue consists of a well-trained Henry-1 crew-member being harnessed onto a 100-foot long-line attached to the bottom of the helicopter. The pilot, in this case, 9-year veteran with Henry-1; Pilot Paul Bradley, then flies the rescuer out to the person in distress. The rescuer places the victim in a rescue “strop” and the two of them are flown back to safety.

Other means of rescuing this subject, which ground rescue crews are well-trained for in case Henry-1 is unavailable, are much more time-consuming, labor-intensive, require additional manpower and resources and tie up rescue crews for an extended periods of time.  A “Henry-1-style rescue” like the one just performed at Bodega Head, is generally completed in less than one minute’s time from set-up.

On 10-29-10 at about 5:06 PM, the Sheriff’s Helicopter “Henry-1″ was requested by State Park Lifeguards for a rescue at Gerstle Cove. Two fishermen had become stranded on a small rock by the incoming tide and large waves and were unable to make it back to shore.

The Henry-1 crew arrived about eight minutes later and set up for a long-line rescue.  Both men, one from San Francisco and the other from Daly City, were licensed fishermen. They were each rescued via long-line without incident. Neither reported any injuries.

On 10/21/2010 at approximately 12:44 PM, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Helicopter “Henry 1″ was dispatched to a possible rescue in the area of Memorial Beach, Healdsburg. It was originally reported as a female kayaker stranded on a rock downstream from Memorial Beach after being ejected from her tandem kayak. Her kayak partner was able to swim to shore.

The Sheriff’s Helicopter Unit responded along with Healdsburg Fire Dept., Windsor Fire Dept., and the Sheriff’s Boating Unit.  The Henry-1 crew arrived on scene and located a female stranded on a rock in the middle of the Russian River just north of the Hwy 101 bridge. After assessing the scene it was determined that, due to the rushing water on both sides of the victim, a “long line” rescue would be the safest and most expedient method of moving the victim out of danger and over to safe shores.

Sheriff’s Pilot Paul Bradley then flew Tactical Flight Officer Debbie Little to the victim via 100-foot long-line attached to the bottom of the helicopter. TFO Little then placed the victim into a rescue ”horse collar” and they were both flown securely to shore.  The victim was turned over to Healdsburg Fire personnel to be medically cleared. The victim, age 65 of Cotati, suffered no injuries.

The Henry-1 crew routinely trains and practices these very rescue scenarios along with local public safety agencies to ensure the highest standard of professional, efficient and safe life-saving rescue measures possible. This afternoon’s rescue evolution in Healdsburg, from spotting the victim in the Russian River to her rescue, took only six minutes.

On 10-3-10 at about 10:39 AM, the Sheriff’s Helicopter Unit, “Henry-1,” was called for a medical rescue at the Foothill Regional Park in Windsor.  The Henry-1 crew, members of the Windsor Fire Department as well as Regional Park staff responded to the Alta Vista Trail for a woman with a leg injury after a fall.

Rescue vehicles were only able to make it part way into the park before the Alta Vista Trail becomes too narrow and steep to traverse.  The Henry-1 crew arrived overhead, located the patient about two-thirds of the way up the Alta Vista Trail and coordinated the ground crew’s ascent to the patient.

The helicopter crew then set up for a long-line rescue/evacuation of the patient from the steep hillside to a ground ambulance in the parking lot below.   The woman, age 55 of Windsor, was then transported via ambulance to a local hospital.

On Tuesday 9-7-10 at about 11:07 am, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office rescue helicopter, “Henry-1,” was requested to assist in a medical rescue at the Doran Beach Jetty Campground in Bodega Bay.  A 44-year-old Santa Rosa woman, who had been whale watching at the far end of the uneven, saw-toothed, rock jetty, had fallen and required a backboard evacuation from the jetty at high-tide.  Members of the Station Bodega Bay US Coast Guard, State Parks rangers and Bodega Bay Fire Department all responded to the scene along with Henry-1 and a 25-foot USCG boat.

Once on scene, the crew of Henry-1 coordinated with the rescue personnel on the ground.  Two trained rescue crewmembers from Henry-1 were then brought onto the scene via a 100-foot long-line to effect the evacuation. The patient was loaded onto a stokes-litter and air-lifted via long-line to awaiting paramedics on shore. The patient was then transported via ambulance to the hospital for further treatment.

For more information, photos and video of this incident, please see the USCG- Station Bodega Bay’s press release at;http://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/823/894035/