Ranger Confidential by Andrea Lankford

Author:Andrea Lankford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Falcon Guides
Published: 2010-04-02T04:00:00+00:00

16

CRASH

Chris Fors snatched the radio mike out of its clamp, brought it up to the soft blond hairs of his cop-style mustache, pushed the button with his thumb, and said, “Copy.” This came out more like “Caahpy,” but the dispatcher was as familiar with the ranger’s Massachusetts accent as she was accustomed to the deliberate lack of emotion in his voice. Despite its urgency, the call did not bring on the adrenaline fix Chris craved. The Grand Canyon airport was the third busiest in the state of Arizona. Rangers responded to emergency landings several times a year. Usually the planes landed safely.

On February 13, 1995, a plane returning to Las Vegas from a trip to the Grand Canyon lost power to one of its engines. A Taiwanese family had chartered the flight as part of their whirlwind tour of several American parks. Eight were on board—the pilot and seven passengers: a father and his three daughters, two sons-in-law, and an aunt. Soon after takeoff from the Grand Canyon airport, the pilot informed air traffic controllers that he was going to attempt an emergency landing in the forest a few miles south of the airport. It was the last radio communication the pilot made.

Witnesses saw the plane disappear into the forest north of the runway. When the park dispatcher passed on this information, Chris grimaced. Chances were, there would be no survivors. Chances were, it would be another damn fatality. And it wouldn’t be pretty. The crash site was three miles from the nearest paved road. From the air, a helicopter pilot directed the ground rescuers to the scene. A recent winter storm had blanketed the South Rim with two inches of snow, turning the ground into a slippery, sloppy mess.

* * *

Every winter tropical storms gather moisture from the coast of Mexico and haul it inland, sometimes dumping two feet of snow on the South Rim. At seven thousand feet, the winter nights are bitter cold. In the morning the cold air, which is heavier, sinks—to the disappointment of travelers paying the park entrance fee before they realize their view of the Grand Canyon is obscured by low clouds.

With a New England upbringing and Nordic genes, ranger Chris Fors preferred the winter weather. For one, the slower season allowed time for all the social events he missed during the hectic summer—potluck dinners, holiday parties, short vacations back home to visit family. After the storms, he could ski the trails near the rim on his days off, taking time to contemplate the park’s beauty and stopping long enough to appreciate how a dusting of snow made the canyon reds seem even redder.

Sometimes the snows caused trouble. Earlier that winter, Chris responded to an accident involving a family from his home state. A few miles outside the park boundary, a Jeep Cherokee slid across yards of icy road until it was stopped by a pickup truck. Inside the Jeep was a family of four from Massachusetts. Three of them were dead or dying.

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