Searchers find hiker’s body after New Mexico police chopper crashes in mountain

NM team find hiker’s body after chopper crash

SANTA FE, N.M. — Searchers have found the body of a hiker who was in a state police helicopter that went down on a snowy Santa Fe mountain peak, but were still searching for the pilot.

Police Lt. Eric Garcia said Megumi Yamamoto, a University of New Mexico physics graduate student from Tokyo, was found dead by rescuers Thursday. He said her family in Tokyo has been notified.

The chopper went down Tuesday night after it had just rescued the University of New Mexico student. The chopper carried the hiker, the pilot and state police officer Wesley Cox, who managed to reach safety Wednesday.

Rescue efforts were hampered by snow, low clouds and wind Wednesday. But the weather broke Thursday, allowing Black Hawk helicopters to airlift searchers as close as they could to the wreckage to look for Yamamoto and the pilot, state police Sgt. Andy Tingwall.

Just before smashing into the mountain Tuesday night, the sleek police copter, designed for just such high-altitude rescue missions, picked up Yamamoto after she become stranded while hiking.

Cox’s right leg was crushed, his back injured. Soon, hypothermia set in. He hunkered down for the night inside the downed chopper with his pilot within earshot. Through the night, Tingwall and Cox alternately called out to each other.

When daybreak came Wednesday, Cox, badly injured and uncertain where Tingwall was, decided he needed to hike out for help, broken bones and all. He walked less than a mile before finding help and was rushed to a hospital with severe hypothermia.

Authorities spent the rest of Wednesday searching the mountains near the crash for signs of the pilot and Yamamoto, who was in New Mexico on a student visa and had been camping with a boyfriend, also a student at the university.

Cox had told police when he went back to the helicopter, he checked the hiker’s vital signs and concluded that she died from injuries from the crash.

When asked about Tingwall’s condition Wednesday, State Police Chief Faron Segotta said: “We’re being optimistic.”

Late Wednesday, two crews located the helicopter’s fuselage and other debris that had been scattered down the mountainside, but there was still no sign of Tingwall or Yamamoto. The chief said the debris field stretched about 800 feet in steep terrain.

The crash occurred northeast of Baldy peak in the Santa Fe Mountains, at about 12,000 feet, officials said. A crew of 18 people hiked through the night in an effort to reach the lower end of the debris field.

Segotta said information about the crash and details of the frightening night on the mountain came from Cox, 29, who remained hospitalized with a back injury, possibly a fracture, and a “seriously crushed” right leg, according to the chief. He also said Cox has some internal bleeding.

Tingwall, of Santa Fe, had radioed in his last radio transmission Tuesday night that he had hit the mountain.

Segotta said three campers near Lake Stewart saw the helicopter take off and fly around the north side of the mountain, then heard its rotors rev to a high pitch. They then saw a flash of light and heard the crash, he said.

The helicopter may have crashed into the mountainside after the tail rotor hit something and subsequently failed to gain enough altitude to negotiate a safe landing, he said.