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MISSING PADDLESKIER: SUNDAY 6 DECEMBER 1998We were on our way back from the Christmas party weekend at Darling and the time was 12:04 when I received five calls simultaneously on my pager. I took one glance at my pager and realised something was wrong in the Hout Bay area, because besides the Off- Road Rescue, the NSRI in Hout Bay, Bakoven and Hout Bay EMS plus John Rolf Helicopter were called out. When I contacted Zero Two the details were still sketchy so I decided to phone the NSRI in Hout Bay where I am also a member. I was informed that they had just received their third call for the day and that a person was missing on a surf ski off the Sandy Bay Area. The Station Commander at NSRI Hout Bay (Peter Adamo) had requested our assistance to help deploy mountain club members in the Karbonkel Berg area as well as assist with the relaying of radio comms. I contacted Max Gouveia (D18)0 who is a resident in Hout Bay and is also a member of ORU and NSRI Hout Bay. The plan of action was that we’d all meet at the NSRI at Hout Bay within the next 45 minutes. At that stage we were still in the Table View area on our way back to Hout Bay. After working my way through some slow moving Sunday afternoon traffic we dropped our kids at home, and myself and Ingrid proceeded directly to the path which runs above Sandy Bay in the direction of a wreck called the Boss 400. Luckily I had a key for the access road to Sandy Bay and as we live near by we know the area pretty well. At that stage we were joined by Jaco and Nicky Reyneke (D85 and D86) who acted as a relay at the top of Llandudno. Kobus Raath (D35) took up a position on Chapman’s peak drive to act as a relay and Max manned the ops room at the NSRI base . Just after 14:00 the John Rolf Helicopter started dropping groups of MCSA members at various points along the coastline to start with the search. They were assisted by two rescue boats from the NSRI. A third NSRI rescue vessel was conducting a search off the Seal Island area for a missing person who jumped into the sea after a gang fight in the harbour heights area. In the mean time the NSRI had also received a call to assist a crew member on a fishing vessel who had his hand caught in a winch. The ETA of this vessel was only 19:00, which allowed a bit of time to continue with the search operation. At about 16:00 the battery of my hand held radio packed up and I had to swop vehicles. D18 drove the NSRI Suzuki Jeep up to my location and with the assistance of my wife took my vehicle back to the rescue base (since this Rescue I have purchased a back-up battery that works from my cigarette lighter and hopefully will not be faced with this situation again). The MCSA members conducted a thorough search along the coast line and eventually all the different Parties arrived back at my location without any trace of the missing person. At about 17:30 the search was temporarily called off and all personal were transported back to the base by the ORU members, including Carl Koch (D21) who had joined us. It is now 11 days since this incident occurred (16th December) and I’ve just had a phone call to assist with the final search in the area. For the record, the missing person from the gang fight incident washed up in the same area from which he disappeared four days later. The missing person from the surf ski turned out to be a well known Hout Bay man - by the name of James Easton, the local pharmacist. A fit and healthy athlete and experienced padddleskier. Sadly not all rescues end up on a happy note but from the station Commander of the NSRI who was in charge of the search a great thank you for all the effort put in by the ORU members. Piet van der Merwe - D68. (Our search on the 16th December proved to be unsuccessful, but the body finally washed up on about the 22nd of December at Flora Bay, which is at the Hout Bay side of Chapman's Peak drive. - D68) JONKERSHOEK MOUNTAIN SEARCH: THURSDAY 12 NOVEMBER 1998Present : Cape Town Section Mountain Club of SA : Team led by Kevin Tromp SAP : Sniffer Dog and Dog handler Off-Road Rescue Unit: Dave Georgeu, Carl and Gill Koch, Trevor Pearman, Roy van Schoor, Pierre Radley. Sky Med One Helicopter: Pilot and crew Cape Nature Conservation: Management Personnel After receiving a radio page and request for assistance early Thursday morning, we headed off to Jonkershoek in Stellenbosch to join in the search for a hiker that had allegedly gone missing. On arrival at Jonkershoek base at 09h15, the temperature was already soaring, promising the day ahead to be – as they say in the classics – "as hot as Hades". After a briefing and distribution of volunteers, we made our way up into the mountains. Certain parties were airlifted and others taken up by way of 4x4’s. Unfortunately the Metro Rescue Vehicle (Metro 4) encountered a mechanical hitch and remained out of action for the operation that lay ahead. Metro 4 was quickly replaced by Carl’s Landy and off we set with Kevin to set up a relay station at the top of the valley. Three search parties including the sniffer dog were airlifted to the top of Jonkershoekberg, 1st Ridge and 2nd Ridge peaks to commence the search. After all the teams were in position, comms checks with the search teams and Dave (D20), who was acting as relay to the outside world, were checked after which the search got underway. After approximately ninety minutes, a call was received from Trevor (D 93) informing us that the hiker had been found and that he had made his way over the mountain to La Motte near Franshhoek – after losing his way the previous day. It was with great relief that we packed away the sun umbrella and empty coke cans noting that it was just 12h00. After driving further up the mountain to collect two members of the MCSA – we arrived back down at base just before 13h00. The hiker had been collected from Franshhoek by family and friends and transported home safely. The benefit of the operation surely lies in the fact that the ORU is reliable and able to set up a comms net wherever needed (Metro 4 breaking down helped to reinforce this). The MCSA team under Kevin Tromp were glad that they had called on us for assistance and we are convinced that relationships between us can only improve to the benefit of the patient. Gill Koch SUICIDE AT MONTAGUE: 10 NOVEMBER 1998I received a call from Pikkie Mouton (Worcester Fire Dept.) yesterday, 10/11/98, in connection with a possible suicide in the mountains in the Koo area behind Montague. I was placed on standby. This call came through at about + - 1130. I then received a call from Insp. Deon van der Merwe, (Worcester SAPS, K9 Unit) and was told that a helicopter from Cape Town was on route to Montague to fly a recce to try and locate the patient. This was at 13:30. At 14:00 I phoned Deon to find out what the situation was and was told that the chopper was enroute to Montague and that I should proceed immediately to Montague Police Station. I was met at the police station by Insp. Deon van der Merwe and the station commander Captain H. Kleinhans. Then it was brought to our attention that Deon's search and rescue dog was injured and could not go in the chopper. It was then decided that Capt. Kleinhans, William ( surname unknown) and myself should go to the farm and begin a search from there. On arrival at the farm house I realised that cell phones did not work, Metro repeaters were not reachable and no TAC 1, 2 or 3. The nearest phone was three kilometres away. Clues were that a young man, Deon Hanson of 25 years of age, had given his aunt a bible on Monday evening with a suicide note written in it. He was last seen at approx. 18:30 that evening standing by a rocky out crop called Tafelkop. His father had then climbed the mountain to search for him, but to no avail. Only on Tuesday morning were the SAPS called out. The advance team found the mans shoes, watch, some coins, a jersey and a stone with the words " Alleen lewe, Allen sterwe, Deon. " written on it where he was last seen. Search teams consisting of the farm workers had been up and down the mountain all morning and found nothing. Captain Kleinhans went up the mountain to photograph the found items and began his own search. While setting in his binoculars, he caught sight of the body approx. 70 meters further NW than the teams had been searching. The body was lying in a very dangerous area, very steep (+- 45 degree slope) and very loose. Getting to the body would be very hazardous, but the chopper was still coming, remember. By 16:30 it was realised that the chopper would not arrive. (There seemed to be a tremendous lack or breakdown of communication in this regard.) Dirk De Koker (Robertson ambulance Service) was then called to bring his Stokes basket and ropes to the police station. He was met by Deon and when asked if he would be going up to help, he replied no. The reason for this being that when asked to bring the Stokes, he was not informed as to the nature of his role and was unprepared. He was still in uniform and had normal work dress shoes on and no boots etc. Again, lack of proper communication. Dirk will follow this up with Capt. Kleinhans. Anyway, the body was eventually placed in the Stokes basket and brought down at 20:05. The customary statements were taken and Dec. Insp. J. Cockrell and myself took the deceased to the hospital were he was certified D.O.A. We them took him to the mortuary were we did the necessary and stowed him in the cooler. There is a tremendous shortage of manpower after hours, which is why the task fell on us, as one man cannot undress and lift a body into the cooler on his own. I would also just like to say Thank you to my wife, Analie, for her immeasurable patience and support. I stood down at 21:10. Bye
JUNCTION POOL RESCUE: 8 NOVEMBER 1998The call came shortly after 6 p.m., reporting a hiker injured after attempting to jump into junction Pool on the Suicide Gorge hiking trail. I arrived at the Nuweberg forest station (03) and proceeded to establish comms with Roy van Schoor (D15) at 19h15. Shortly after I was joined by Charles Cherry (D31). Members of the ORU and MCSA, Gavin Holroyd (D48), Dirk de Kock (D58) and Mike O'Keefe (M73) arrived with Dave Watling (D82) and Roy together with the MCSA trailer. Roy co-ordinated the comms from base. I then transported the Mountain team to a point from which they proceeded on foot to the injured hiker. Members of Strand Ambulance Base also arrived and set up their own recovery team. By late evening, MCSA reached the patient, who was already attended to by two Grabouw Ambulance officials. The MCSA team reported the details of their position and it was decided to airlift the patient to safety. Charles and I transported the four ambulance members and Dirk back to the base. The unfortunate hiker was airlifted to Ysterplaat and transported to hospital with a suspected back injury. Ernst Heydenrych - D64 Out (This operation was a bit of a circus, with two ambulance stations, CNC personnel, and ORU/MCSA all responding separately. The four Strand Ambulance personnel insisted on proceeding into the mountains even though two Grabouw Ambulance personnel were already with the patient. CNC had twelve personnel near the incident with a Stokes stretcher, but no back-board. The Strand personnel never reached the patient and had to hike back to their vehicle. The CNC personnel complained because the chopper did not airlift them back to Nuweberg. The MCSA team with ORU comms relayed reliable information back to 03 which was then relayed to Medic 2. A decision was then made to deploy an Oryx with CT MCSA personnel and a Metro paramedic. The pilot flew into the gorge using night vision equipment and lowered a Sked stretcher for the patient. D48, M73 and the two Grabouw personnel subsequently ended up at Ysterplaat as the pilot, after precision flying in the gorge, did not want to land again at Nuweberg, let alone recover 12 extra CNC men! Unfortunately, many of these people do not understand the concept of a unified command, control and communications structure. Some of them refused to make use of 03 where reliable comms links have been established for this area. It is extremely disconcerting to see this type of behaviour when the main aim should be to assist the patient as efficiently as possible. By contrast, the Oryx pilot fully understood the situation and maintained comms with 03 for the duration of the operation. Duplicity of resources and communications creates confusion as well as being inefficient, counter productive and a waste of money. A wilderness incident of this nature demands strict adherence to the demands of the environment including accessibility, terrain, weather, time of day, time to patient etc. The Grabouw personnel for instance, were not suitably equipped for the environment that they found themselves in. Proper management of resources would lead to a more efficient and cost effective response which would ultimately benefit the patient. - D15) BOATING ACCIDENT AT SILVERSTRAND 8 NOVEMBER 1998Yesterday at about 1430, I received a call from Mr. Dirk De Koker to please assist in a drowning incident at Silverstrand. It seems one of the knowledgeable boating people, a man called Flip Van Der Merwe, took 6 other people for a trip down the river in a skiboat. At the northern end of Silverstand lies the weir, somehow the boat got into difficulties, as the river is flowing very strongly at present due to the good rains and snow that has recently fallen, and went over the weir. I raced to Silverstrand to assess the situation and was told by members of the public to rather get to the McGregor Bridge A.S.A.P. as anyone going down stream would end up there in a very short space of time. I picked up Mr. Peter Tillman, owner of Branewynsdraai Restaurant, who's boat was already in the water at Silverstrand if needed, and raced off to the bridge. When we arrived a small boy of 4 years old was retrieved from the water.This boy was on the boat and was the only child of Hein and Amanda Kriel, owners of the cafe at Silverstrand. The child was code blue when retrieved. What was ascertained was that no-one on the boat was wearing lifejackets and there are once again questions about the boating practices at resorts along the Breede River. Bye ARRANGIESKOP RESCUE: 6 SEPTEMBER 1998I received a telephone call at 1436B from Mr Petrie, the pharmacist in Robertson, regarding his wife's hiking party who were hiking the Arrangieskop trail. A man in his late years was with them and had "collapsed" on the down leg of the trail. Mr Petrie was then going to go up to the lower overnight hut and call me from there via landline with more information. I phoned D15 to put him in the picture. Very little was known at this stage re. patient condition. We needed to try and obtain more information from Mr Petrie and prevent him from rushing off into the mountains, so I phoned the duty lady from Robertson municipality to find out the number of the mountain hut, but this was refused! While I was talking to her, I overheard a radio call coming in over the municipality radio that I must not inform anyone from Cape Town but await "orders" from Mr Cor Van Wageningen, the Robertson Town Clerk! This was a strange request, but I immediately informed D15 to cover my own tail if there were any comebacks. D15 in turn kept Metro informed. After about 40 minutes, I received a call from Cor Van Wageningen asking for my help to transport our first response team of three up to the ridge before Vensterbank where we have a staging point. Mr Dirk De Koker, Mr Pieter Wentzel and Mr Willie Koekemoer needed to be driven up as far as possible before they started walking up the trail in the direction of the upper hut on Arrangieskop. I took the team up, and found out from other hikers that the patient was 7kms from the hut. This eventually turned out to be 7kms from the end of the trail, big difference! Dirk and his team soon turned out to be just Dirk, fitness etc. Dirk then met Mrs Maureen Petrie on her way down. She said that the injured man was still a long way back, and that his name was Mr Wentzel from the Robertson Nursery. At 1616B Dirk told me via radio that he should make contact with the patient in around 5 hours. This in actual fact became 1 hour 20 minutes. As I said it was 7kms from the end of the trail. Eventually they managed to walk the patient out. He was weak but O.K. He was loaded into my vehicle and driven back to the Dassieshoek Overnight (lower) Hut, and all was well. I personally feel that if I was responded sooner, this whole rescue could have been over in a couple of hours as opposed to the 41\2 hours that it actually took. Anyway everyone was stood down at 1845B. Thanks to everyone who stood-by, including the Metro team, SkyMed One crew, and other ORU members. D34 Signing Off. Graham Macmillan Graham received a letter from the patient, Mr Wentzel, thanking him for his assistance in the rescue.
Photos: Graham MacmillanHELDERBERG RESCUE 25 JULY 1998Although the rescue took place in the late afternoon on Saturday the 25th, the lady, Margaret Grootboom, actually fell ±10 metres on the western side of the Helderberg on Friday! Members of her party first went back to Khayelitsha to fetch her family, and only on Saturday did they go down to the Somerset West police station to ask for help. We received a call at 16:15 from Zero 5 (Strand Ambulance) and initiated a page callout. While the MCSA were rallying their troops, Trevor (D93), a friend of his and myself proceeded up to top radio mast site above Helderberg College while Kobus (L35), Charles (D31) and Peter (B96) proceeded to Zero 5. By the time we reached the site of the fall with the Troll stretcher, the
ambulance personnel had begun to stabilise her and make her comfortable. After much comms
with Medic 2, M73 and Zero 2 and , an Oryx was dispatched from Ysterplaat with a By the time the Oryx reached us, the sun had already set and the red flare set off by the medic cast an intense light on the scene. The extraction of the patient went off like clockwork, and 15 minutes later Margaret was in an ambulance heading for Tygerberg Resus. The smoothness of the operation, professional co-operation between the various organisations and the subsequent sense of achievement and elation at a job well done, only comes from the training and dedication of all the personnel involved. Roy van Schoor, D15
Photo: Graham Macmillan12 JULY 1998: THE AIR CRASH THAT WASN'TWhile on Standby, we were monitoring the radios on scan, when at
approximately 05h30 Marion (B95) heard Metro calling that there had been an Air Crash in
the Somerset West - Stellenbosch area, confirmed 5 minutes later. We took note of the
message, but as this appeared to be in an urban area, we did not expect to be At approximately 16h00, Roy van Schoor (D15), who had also been monitoring and who had joined the Metro search team requested Dave Georgeu (B20) to page for volunteers to stand by. The searchers had been unable to definitely confirm a crash of a single-engined plane, and attempts to contact the Control Tower at the aerodrome at Stellenbosch proved fruitless. Dave then mobilised himself and Peter (B96) in order to assist if needed, while Roy requested Gavin Holroyd (M48) to proceed to the Stellenbosch airport to enquire about a possible missing plane. It transpired later that a plane had landed 6 minutes after having had engine trouble in the area. After the air and ground search for the phantom crash, the Unit members were stood down at 18h00. Peter and Marion Jaeger, B96 and B95 LANDDROSKOP FIREA radio call from Landdroskop with a difference - a fire in one of the bunk rooms! Although the caller reported that the fire was now out, this appeared to be a disciplinary matter, so I informed the CNC personnel. Shortly after that, the caller informed us that a lady was wet and cold. What should he do? Gave normal advice for hypothermic patients, but wondered what on earth was going on there. The CNC official was now well on his way, so I hoped he would throw more light on the subject. The next call from the hut - the lady wanted water, could he give her some? And when were we going to be there? He was now sounding quite desperate. When the ranger arrived 10 minutes later, he immediately asked us to arrange an ambulance. He would be bringing two patients down with possible smoke inhalation problems. Organised an ambulance from Grabouw which met the ranger's vehicle at Nuweberg and off to 'Triple-H'. (Hottentots-Holland Hospital) The next morning the patients were up and about, blood tests complete. There's always a first one! Roy van Schoor D15 GORDON'S BAY RESCUEI received a page (D93) at approx. 17.20, arrived home to a Landline from M73 at 17.30 and proceeded to his house at 17.45. Situation: Two boys climbing up above Gordon's Bay; One fell approx. 16.30; Strand Ambulance on scene; MCSA required for assistance. We collected one MCSA plus M73 and arrived at the Foot of the Cross at the Danie Millar trail at 18.10 I stayed as advanced base whilst climbing party proceeded to patient in semi darkness. (despite the illuminated cross). MCSA required their own base (M74) which caused some confusion and two further members (MCSA) were called to assist the stretcher evacuation. One arrived at patient missing the base, the other did not arrive and I was used to assist MCSA having handed my radio responsibilities over to Alpha 143 (Vincent Gordon). The rescue was completed at 20.00 hours in complete darkness, the patient Shaun Pretorius 14 years, looking the worst for wear with lacerations to face and damage to hip. He was removed by ambulance. Problems were: Calling 5 bases (02, M74, Alpha143, D15); Interference on Simplex Channel One, Torches again not working (MCSA); And the second time I could have used Metro channels with Alpha 143. The positives lay in response from a page whilst travelling from the shops to fully mobile in 25 minutes. Trevor Pearman D93 (It seems that Ambulance are still delaying the callout of Search and Rescue until after they have reached the scene, in spite of this being an obvious mountain call and after recent meetings and discussions in the Helderberg - RvS) SEARCH AND RETRIEVAL SARON MOUNTAINS: SATURDAY, 23 MAY 1998The ORU and the Mountain Club members met at the Metro Rescue Base in Pinelands at 0515 and left for Saron, driving in a proverbial pea-soup mist. We arrived at Saron Primary School grounds at about 0715 and waited for the Oryx helicopter to arrive with additional personnel. At this stage it appeared that the only ORU involvement would be to transport the mountaineers to and from Saron. We prepared ourselves however for the eventuality that the Metro repeater would not work or would not cover all positions, in which case we would be called upon to do this duty. This is exactly what happened. At the Briefing, the description given was that of a 26 year old, 1.4 m tall male wearing black jeans, a black shirt and a brown cap. He was one of a group searching for boegom in the mountains. They were caught by surprise when heavy mist came over the mountains and they became totally disorientated. After a while they realised that they were going the wrong way when they saw Tulbagh in the distance and turned back. After they had walked a considerable distance, they realised that they were missing a member. They searched for him but without success and spent the night on the mountain. The next morning, Tuesday, they came down, and his disappearance was reported to the SAP on Wednesday evening. The search teams were informed that foul-play was suspected and that a police investigation was underway. The Oryx flew the searchers to their respective positions and Trevor Pearman [D93] and Peter Jaeger [B96] took up positions around the bluff while Dave Georgeu [B20] remained at Base at the School. It was soon established that the Metro repeater station on top of the mountain did not function correctly, and that B96 had good comms with Brent and Hugo (in search area C ), Nic (search area D ), Douw (search area E) and the Base and could perform the repeater function. Andre (search area A) and Alec (search area B) had direct comms with Base. The communication by the ORU was first done on TAC 1 and permanently switched to Metro channel 12 once communication with base and the searchers on the east side of the mountain proved to be satisfactory. In the meantime, Dave spent time liasing with the MCSA and pumping up the helicopter tyres so that it could land. The first clues that the missing person had been found came when Brent radioed that his team had found foot prints coming from soft shoes like tackies, which his wife confirmed that he had been wearing. Some minutes later Brent reported that they had found him, but he was already Code Blue. The search was over. The teams collected at various points, the victim was tied into a stretcher and all were air-lifted back to base. Peter Jaeger, B96 MOUNTAIN RESCUE: HELDERBERG 15 MARCH 199816h40, and ZERO 2 received a call from Metro, requesting assistance for a hiker on a Cum Hike outing who had developed severe cramps and was unable to walk down the Porcupine Ridge route on the Helderberg mountain. Trevor Pearman [D93] was the first to respond with a 4-member MCSA hasty team, including Mike O'Keefe [M73] and a medic from the Strand Ambulance Base. With Roy [D15] co-ordinating the comms at the bottom end of the Helderberg Nature Reserve, Dave Watling [D82], Trevor [D78] and Tommy Freeborough [B89] responded and transported an MCSA and Ambulance team up to the Disa Gorge staging point. They then proceeded to join the rest of the MCSA, who were expecting to carry the patient out on a stretcher. However, by the time the hasty team had reached him, he was able to walk out slowly and painfully. Finally, at approximately 21h00, Dave [D82] transported the patient down to the Nature Reserve tea room in his Land Rover. Marion Jaeger, B95 HOW MANY WAYS ARE A RADIO USED: LANDDROSKOP 13 MARCH 1998A scrambled radio message came through from Landdroskop, which being in an incomprehensible foreign language, prompted a call through to Nuweberg requesting a ranger to investigate. What was the problem? There was an overbooking and overcrowding at the hut and could someone please come and sort it out, pleeze!!! |
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