Pulled Two Air Crash Victims To Safety

Ron Rucker, a smokejumper based in Bend, OR, will be awarded a medal for his heroism after he survived a takeoff crash and then returned to pull two people out of the smoldering wreckage.

On July 21, 2005, Rucker was serving as an air tactical group supervisor flying in an Aero-Commander and was planning to  direct resources to attack a fire at the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The plane took off from North Las Vegas airport and suddenly dived into the ground for as yet undetermined reasons. Rucker found himself injured, but able to move.

As Rucker reported to the Bend Bulletin, he was a "pretty happy boy" when he escaped the wreckage. He assumed that his fellow smokejumper who he was training and the pilot were both dead because of the extensive destruction of the plane. When he saw that fellow smokejumper Marge Kuehn-Tabor was alive, Rucker entered the wreckage, full of hundreds of gallons of aviation fuel, and was able to pull her to safety. She had a fractured pelvis and other injuries.

Realizing that the plane had not exploded, Rucker headed to the mangled cockpit to recover what he expected to be the dead pilot. Miraculously, Jonathan Stairs was alive, though sufferring multiple leg fractures and a head injury. Rucker, despite having a fractured toe and multiple bruises and cuts, pulled him away from the wreckage.

The Bend Bulletin reports that James Morrison, an aviation safety manager who investigated the crash said, "It was certainly above and beyond the call of duty."

On Wednesday, Rucker will be Arlington, VA with his wife and daughter. His boss, Dale Bosworth, head of the US Forest Service, will present to him the Chief's Award for Heroism and Emergency Response.

FMI: www.fs.fed.us/fire/