Crews In BC Accidentally Rescued Stranded Hikers During A Night-Vision Test Flight

On December 23, an unexpected B.C. hiker rescue took place after North Short Rescue discovered two stranded hikers during a night-vision test flight. 

According to a series of posts by North Shore Rescue (NSR), a team was out doing some training at night when they noticed two people in Suicide Creek.

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The use of NVG’s allowed our team to locate these subjects an hour before they were reported missing during a training flight. This is an excellent use case for this new capability. North Shore Rescue

The people weren’t accessible by air so crew members responded on foot.

The hikers had come down the west side of Seymour. They were following ski tracks. NSR said that the hikers should have gone back South East, but they had continued down “way too far” and got stuck.

“The only way back to parking after following ski tracks down the west side is to go back up,” the rescue crew wrote.

They were in steep terrain, unable to go up or down. The team in the helicopter lowered radios and supplies to them on a rope. They said they were alright, just stuck.

The night vision from the helicopter allowed the hikers to be located an hour before they were even reported as missing.

In the early hours of the morning on Christmas Eve, NSR wrote that ground teams had rappelled down to the hikers, got them in harnesses, and eventually brought them to safety.