A pair of hunters went from wandering in the wrong direction through the Wyoming wilderness to pulling an injured pilot out of a raging inferno after his tiny plane crashed Sunday morning.
The two men, who were coincidentally expertly trained to rescue the wounded pilot, had suffered a series of setbacks during their hunting trip — including heading the wrong way while avoiding grizzly bears — that put them in the right place to see and respond to the fiery crash, according to a report.
Steve Atencio, a Black Hawk pilot for the Wyoming Army Guard and former firefighter, and JR Larsen, an ex-athletic trainer, heard a loud bang at around 10:45 a.m. and rushed into action in the town of Meeteetse.
After searching around the area, they told Cowboy State Daily they spotted thick smoke rising from the trees and called for help.
Atencio quickly deployed a Garmin inReach device to send out an SOS as neither man had cell service. While attempting to get in touch with emergency agencies, the pair trekked toward the crash site carrying around 40 pounds of equipment each in case they needed it.
“We were both blasting through the trees as fast as we could,” Atencio told the newspaper.
As Atencio was working with first responders who finally received his dire message, Larsen ran slightly ahead down a muddy hill, tripping a few times, as he tried to reach the source of the smoke as quickly as possible.
When the pair reached the downed plane, Larsen reportedly shouted, “Is anybody there?”
The pilot responded and called out for help as he was lying face down near the fire with his hands under his head. He told the hunters he believed his back was broken, though his arms and legs were still moving.
The pilot also told Larsen he believed his passenger, later identified as 78-year-old Mary Lou Sanderson, was dead.
“That’s when it started to hit home how serious this was,” Larsen told Cowboy State Daily.
As the fire edged toward the pilot and burning branches began to fall around them, both Larsen and Atencio went to great length to tug the pilot to safety.
They said they first placed a tarp under his body, but it ripped. They then turned Atencio’s pack frame into a makeshift harness and strapped it onto the pilot to carry him away, the outlet reported.
As they pulled the man through thick greenery, the pair also had to be careful with the severe burns the pilot suffered.
At one point, the pilot reportedly told them, “Leave me here,” but the rescuers were able to get him to a safe spot.
Eventually, a rescue helicopter landed about 75 yards from the crash site with Atencio’s guidance and transported the pilot to a hospital in Montana where he is currently receiving treatment, according to the news outlet.
His passenger was confirmed dead.
For the hunters, it almost felt like fate that they were in the right place at the right time to rescue the pilot, they told the local paper.
“Nothing about where we were headed was part of the plane,” Larsen told Cowboy State Daily. “For whatever reason, that’s where we were put.”
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