Volunteer Radar Analysts Pinpoint Crash Area in Az, 1 Rescued

Arizona responders searching for a light aircraft crash site in the northern part of the state thank the Civil Air Patrol’s volunteers at the National Radar Analysis Team (NRAT) for their assistance. A Piper PA-28R-200 Arrow II departed from San Martin, California with two aboard and crashed while on approach to Page Municipal Airport, Page, Arizona. 

After the crash, the surviving passenger was able to send a text to family, but did not know her location. After the FAA alerted the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, they requested the NRAT’s assistance in finding the crash-site location. In less than ten minutes the NRAT analyzed and processed millions of radar targets following the track of the aircraft, narrowing the search area from hundreds of miles of possible targets, to less than 100 feet. The search team was able to reach the wife of the deceased pilot, who was taken to St. George, Utah for treatment. 

“They were looking in the wrong location based on a text received from the passenger; but we were able to put them in the right place for the rescue,” said Lt. Col. John Henderson, CAP vice commander of NRAT. 

“With these types of missions, where you know that someone has survived the crash, time is of the essence. We lost the track 125 feet above the terrain in a descent, so we knew right where they had crashed,” Henderson said. “Based on our precise location, less than 100 feet from our prediction, a rescue helicopter was able to fly to the crash site an hour after dark and rescue the lone survivor. This was on top of a plateau in a very remote, desolate area.”

This operation marks another success for the NRAT, whose intervention has rescued 13 to date in 2021. The team is all-volunteer, themselves often veterans skilled in radar analysis who donate their time to assist aviators and passengers in receiving timely emergency assistance.

FMI: www.cap.gov