As usual, there are several ways to interpet what happened: did the pilot and passenger need "rescuing", were the couple "distressed", or just deemed to be by the reporter, did the Search and Rescue "get the couple out of the plane", or did they get out on their own? Cell phone coverage in the area is spotty, and it was getting on towards dark. Temps were in the mid 40's and no wind. It sounds like the landing was uneventfull but not really specified as such. At least the term "lucky to be alive" was not used as in most small plane mishaps! I'm not sure if it was me and I made an uneventfull dead stick landing, and had communicated same to S & R, I 'd appreciate 11 snowmachines, 2 ATV's and a large snowcat to get my butt out of there. I suppose over response is better then under, and the communication between all parties is unclear. My last dead stick landing was a non event, and the Pocatello tower was instantly informed of that, (I was 4 miles out) no property damage or injuries. Nonetheless, for the next couple hours a constant stream of emergency response vehicles, and then the news media, continued to arrive, I mean I know there is a ON button for emergencies, but sometimes it seems the OFF button is not used in a timely fashion. BTW when the news media asks your name, you DO NOT have to tell them, the next day all the paper had was a long distance shot of a perfectly normal airplane parked in a field, the pilot and passenger were "two unidentified local men".
So.....what really happened Kenny???

BONNEVILLE COUNTY – A couple from Bingham County escaped injury when the engine of their small plane quit and they had to make an emergency landing in a rural area of Bonneville County Tuesday night.

The Bonneville County Sheriff's Office said Kenny Smith and his wife declared an emergency situation to the Idaho Falls Regional Airport control tower just after 7 p.m. They said the engine in their Cessna 172 gave out and they were going down. They landed near a snowmobile trail near the intersection of Brockman and Dan Creek road.

The Civil Air Patrol also heard the distress call while they were on a routine training mission. One of their aircrafts immediately flew to the area and spotted the down plane.

When they arrived, CAP was able to make contact with the pilot who said they were not hurt.

A Search and Rescue crew was called out. They set up a command post at the Bone snowmobile parking lot. They sent in 11 snowmobiles, two ATVs and a large snow-cat to rescue the Smiths.

The CAP pilot kept flying over the crash site and relayed information to searchers until they could reach the distressed couple.

Search and Rescue was to get the couple out of the plane. They had to ride in the snow-cat, provided by Micro Serve, for the last leg of the rescue.

Everyone made it safely back to the command post just after 10 p.m.

There is a perfectly good reason for all the responce. These S & R guys and galls and fire fighters etc get their rocks off responding. If more of the wives had let ther husband out or if more of these guys had been sober you would have gotten a lot more responce.

My son was welding on a pipe line a few years back and caused a small fire. Burned up a patch of star thistle that was serounded by irrigated pasture. We had about 150,000 worth of equipment not to count the man power for 1/2 acre of star thistle. They all thought they were rambo too.

Tim

Maybe the CAP and sheriff should have told them to **** off and walk through the snow?

Maybe when the first guys get there they should call the rest of the mounties and tell them to make a 180 and go home and save the gas. In the case of our little fire, the rigs just kept coming well after the fire was out. I think they just got done watching Back Draft and were all pumped up.

Tim

Ya you ever notice when a cop gets hurt or shot on one side of town you could reak havoc on the other side of town and nobody (cops) would know. Nothing against cops there good as long as they're on your side or you got nothing to hide.

no doubt a little over-reaction. but, nice to have that much help if u really needed it! they put that down 30 miles
east of my house...solid groomed trail for sure...was traveling, or i could have scooped them up in the 182 in about 10 mins...not sure why the cap bird didn't land...

Situation like that, I'd just push the "HELP" button on my SPOT and hope one of my buddy's come to the rescue (if I'm within 100 miles or so of home base). If my buddy's don't show up before I'm starting to run out of food and water, or before I start to freeze my azz off, then I'll go ahead and hit the "911" button on my SPOT.

A satellite phone would be the cats meow, but not on my budget in the near future .

Jomac,
So... you know the pilot? Keep us posted. Nothing in the local news over this way, just the statement I posted earlier. Did he keep it in one piece? Good on him if so.

jomac wrote:no doubt a little over-reaction. but, nice to have that much help if u really needed it! they put that down 30 miles
east of my house...solid groomed trail for sure...was traveling, or i could have scooped them up in the 182 in about 10 mins...not sure why the cap bird didn't land...

My guess is the CAP guy didn't have your experience of how to land a 182 in the trees

did not recognize his name, courier...snowmobile bros said plane has no damage, he knew his stuff to put it where he did...must have been low when he had the fire go out, plane started up after landing...i'll ck it out sun if i'm not in the frank...

I was up this AM, flew to Logan and back, the long way... and thought about the site but I'm not sure where exactly so did not get over , it looks like tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm going to fly to Alpine for breakfast, and check on a crane job in Bancroft on the way back. Too bad that it wasn't stressed in the news coverage that the landing resulted in no damage or injuries, in a twisted way that's the kind of good PR we need! GREAT air today!

jomac wrote:did not recognize his name, courier...snowmobile bros said plane has no damage, he knew his stuff to put it where he did...must have been low when he had the fire go out, plane started up after landing...i'll ck it out sun if i'm not in the frank...