Julian Sands: helicopter search under way for missing actor

The seek for British actor Julian Sands continues almost every week after he was reported lacking whereas climbing in a treacherous space of California’s San Gabriel Mountains, the place at the very least two different hikers have already perished this winter.

The seek for the 65-year-old actor is at the moment being carried out “through helicopter solely”, the San Bernardino county sheriff’s division mentioned Friday afternoon, as a result of the chance of avalanches round Mt Baldy has continued to make on-the-ground rescue efforts too harmful.

There’s at the moment no timeline for ending the seek for Sands, division spokesperson Gloria Huerta mentioned on Friday.

The Mt Baldy bowl space the place Sands was climbing has been a lethal one this winter, with at the very least two hikers killed within the space after falling and injuring themselves up to now month, in line with the sheriff’s division.

One of many two hikers who died, recognized by native media as Crystal Paula Gonzalez, was an skilled hiker, recognized to household and buddies as “the climbing queen,” CBS Information Los Angeles reported. Authorities mentioned that Gonzalez, who had beforehand summited Mt Whitney, one of many highest peaks in the USA, slipped and fell greater than 500ft whereas climbing on 8 January, and died of her accidents on the mountain.

Search and rescue groups have responded to greater than two dozen completely different incidents of misplaced or injured hikers within the Mt Baldy space over the previous month, with authorities this week warning even skilled hikers to steer clear of the mountain throughout “extraordinarily harmful” situations.

Sands, an avid hiker and longtime resident of the Los Angeles space, was reported lacking round 7.30pm final Friday. Pings from his mobile phone logged in subsequent days solely confirmed his actions on 13 January, the sheriff’s division mentioned late Friday.

Preliminary floor and helicopter searches of one among his potential places that day didn’t find any proof of Sands, the division mentioned. Additional evaluation of Sands’ mobile phone location knowledge is ongoing, however, “To date, no workable leads have been developed”, the division mentioned.

At this level, there is no such thing as a knowledge that signifies Sands’ whereabouts after Friday, the day he was reported lacking, Huerta mentioned. His car was positioned within the Mt Baldy space, and has been towed by his household, she mentioned.

“Further air searches will likely be carried out,” the division mentioned.

As California has been buffeted by winter storms, climate situations within the mountain have inhibited makes an attempt to help lacking and injured hikers, together with Sands. Rescue crews searching for Sands on the bottom needed to be pulled off the mountain on Saturday evening due to the damaging climate. Climate situations additionally inhibited the efforts to evacuate Gonzalez, the injured hiker, off the mountain to a hospital, a medic informed CBS Information Los Angeles. She left behind 5 kids, the information outlet reported.

Greater than 21 individuals have died throughout California within the storms of the previous few weeks, and others, together with a five-year-old boy swept away in flood waters, stay lacking.

Sands, who is thought for his roles in The Killing Fields, A Room with a View, and Bare Lunch, has lived within the Los Angeles space for years together with his spouse, the author Eugenia Citkowitz, with whom he has a son. He additionally has two daughters with former Night Customary and BBC Radio 4 Right this moment program editor Sarah Sands, to whom he was married from 1984 to 1987.

Different Hollywood actors, writers and producers, have posted their prayers for Sands and his household on social media, praising him as an inspiration and a buddy.

“Preserve candles burning for his secure return from the mountain he loves,” actor Matthew Modine wrote on Twitter.