Warden Pilot Guides Rescue Effort in Sierra Nevada
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March 9, 2007
Years of experience using wireless communication systems while
flying planes helped a Fish and Game warden locate a missing U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) officer March 2. Flying a
Department of Fish and Game’s (DFG) Cessna 185 Sky Wagon, Warden
Robert Morgan headed north to Sierra County to assist in the search
for Jim Kincade, a USDA tracker who had been missing for 18 hours.
“We knew that Kincade, as an experienced officer, always kept in
communication when he was traveling,” said DFG Warden Lt. Richard
Vincent.“His failure to report in made everyone worry that he had an
accident or was injured.”
Reports indicated Kincade had been retrieving his dogs after a
mountain lion depredation training exercise in Nevada County
Thursday but had failed to meet his check-in times. Concerned, the
USDA contacted the DFG the morning of March 2, for help in the
search.
Morgan was also contacted in the hope that his years of flight
experience using telemetry, (a wireless system of identifying
inaccessible locations), could help locate Kincade. Morgan planned
to use the radio collar frequencies of Kincade’s dogs to find the
missing USDA officer.
“With a few calls, I found one of Kincade’s associates who knew what
frequencies Kincade had for his hounds,” said Morgan, who has been
flying for DFG since 1989. “I took off from Sacramento Executive
Airport, punched in the frequencies and headed to the area.”
When Morgan arrived on the scene, he immediately picked up a signal
from the dogs’ collars and began looking for signs of Kincade. He
saw what he suspected to be human tracks in the snow and radioed his
findings to the command post where ground teams were coordinating
their search efforts.
“This stuff is something we do everyday,” said Morgan. “We fly
telemetry operations easily two to three times a week, so to us,
it’s no big deal.”
Ground telemetry triangulated with Morgan’s readings indicated that
the team was headed in the right direction. A California Highway
Patrol helicopter joined the search, and Morgan guided them to
Kincade’s location.
“It was something to see that they were there for me,” said Kincade
who had no cell phone service to let coworkers know of his
situation. “It's great to see how organized they are, and to know
that if I'd been hurt, they would have gotten me out alive.”
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