Helicopter

Anyone planning to step foot on one of Shell's offshore Arctic drilling vessels this summer must first pass an intense two day helicopter safety course. The class, which is taught at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska, using the Kenai Central High School swimming pool, tests students' endurance and nerves in a mock helicopter, which simulates a crash at sea. It is at times exhilarating and terrifying, but instructors say the skills taught there just might save lives.

Alaska State Troopers say a veteran pilot, a Talkeetna-based trooper and a rescued snowmachiner died when an AST helicopter crashed overnight Saturday during a search-and-rescue mission near Talkeetna. In a somber Monday press conference held at AST headquarters on Tudor Road in Anchorage, Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner tentatively identified the dead as 55-year-old Anchorage-based pilot Mel Nading, 40-year-old trooper Tage Toll and 56-year-old Talkeetna man Carl Ober.

Hypothermic, frost-bitten and with a broken leg, the climber spots the helicopter.   It swoops in over the broad, wind-scoured area just below the summit of Denali, its blades slicing oxygen-depleted air at 19,500 ft. The helicopter hovers just above the injured climber, 40-year-old Jeremiah O’Sullivan from Ballinhassig, Ireland. This helicopter is the O’Sullivan’s ticket off the mountain. Andy Hermansky -- an Austrian ex-counterterrorism sniper -- is the pilot.

Two people were killed in a plane crash near Mount Susitna Tuesday night and discovered by the Alaska Air National Guard. Maj. Guy Hayes says a helicopter crew was on a training mission near Big Lake when it heard an Emergency Locator Transmitter. The Guardsmen then spotted a plume of smoke, Hayes said in a release, and headed towards the scene, on the Susitna River, where they found a small crashed plane. The release says the pilots were able to land the helicopter nearby and that crewmembers used four fire extinguishers to try to put out the fire.

Three people were rescued from an overturned canoe in the Eagle River Monday night, according to the Anchorage Fire Department and Alaska State Troopers. AFD and AST say they responded to the call for a swift water rescue around 8 o'clock Monday night, near mile 17 of the Eagle River, near the Briggs Bridge over Eagle River Loop Road. A trooper helicopter was used to help locate the three, who had managed to climb onto a log that the canoe had run into, causing the canoe to flip over.

Alaska State Troopers have identified the two men who were injured in a Wednesday plane crash near the Knik River Wednesday morning. The Alaska National Guard rescued Wasilla pilot Richard Lee Cline, 60, and California passenger Paul Germeraad from the crash of Cline's 2009 Avaiat 1AB Husky. The Guard says Cline called 911 at 10:05 a.m. reporting the crash between Pioneer and Twin Peaks, approximately 30 miles northeast of Anchorage. The 11th Rescue Coordination Center sent a Pave Hawk helicopter, which could not land near the crash site, so rescuers lowered themselves to the site, which is at about the 3,000-foot level.

The pilot of a 196 6 D-H-C-2 Dehavilland was forced to make an emergency landing Saturday night near Cantwell. Alaska State Troopers say the plane carrying the pilot and seven passengers landed in a marshy area about five miles south of summit Summit Airfield in Cantwell. A Denali National Park helicopter and Era helicopter were able to pick up all eight people from the site and transfer them to Cantwell. No word yet on the cause of the forced landing and no one on the plane was injured.

Alaska State Troopers said a Kodiak Man on a hunting trip died after he fell from a cliff. According to Troopers Spokeswoman Megan Peters, 21-year-old James Monroe fell off a cliff on Kodiak Island near Halibut Bay on Friday. Troopers said he was hunting in the area. The Coast Guard took a call Friday night that a man had fallen and a helicopter found Monroe and took him to Kodiak. Monroe was pronounced dead at Kodiak Providence Medical Center.  

Two people on board a plane that crashed on Knik Glacier were rescued by an Alaska Air National Guard helicopter crew Friday afternoon, according to Guard officials. No injuries were reported in the crash. Alaska ANG Staff Sgt. Karima Turner says the Federal Aviation Administration relayed an alert about the crash to the 11th Rescue Coordination Center, which dispatched a 210th Rescue Squadron HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter to the crash site. The helicopter was able to land on the glacier and safely pick up the plane's occupants, although the extent of their injuries wasn't determined until the Pave Hawk arrived.

A 6-year-old boy was killed in an accident on the Glenn Highway Sunday night. Anchorage police say that the crash happened at about 5:05 p.m. Katherine Ferguson of Eagle River was visiting family in Birchwood with her four children. Police say that on her return to Anchorage, Ferguson was merging into the left lanes when she veered into the median, went down an embankment and flipped several times. Her 6-year-old son, John Ferguson, was partially ejected from the truck – a 2000 Ford Supercab with a snowplow – and the truck came to rest on him. Police say passing motorists lifted the vehicle off the child and he was transported by helicopter to Providence Hospital where he was pronounced dead.