A pilot had a miraculous escape when two hunters chanced upon the burning wreckage of his light aircraft on Sunday after it crashed in one of Wyoming’s remotest spots.
The crash ignited nearby trees, and flames were creeping towards the badly injured man when Steve Atencio and JR Larsen reached the scene near the 13,000ft summit of Francs Peak.
The pair pulled him clear with seconds to spare before Atencio used his experience as a Black Hawk pilot for the Wyoming Army Guard to help guide a rescue helicopter to a safe landing spot.
The hunters had strayed miles off route that morning as they struggled to avoid wolves and bears in the empty Absaroka mountains, and marveled at their good fortune in being able to reach the scene in time.
‘Nothing about where we were headed was part of the plan,’ Larsen told Cowboy State Daily. ‘For whatever reason, that’s where we were put.’
Hunter JR Larsen was first to reach the scene when the light aircraft came down near the 13,000ft summit of Francs Peak in Wyoming on Sunday
His friend Steve Atencio arrived seconds later after alerting authorities to the crash
The friends from Cheyenne had set out that morning looking for big horn sheep while struggling to keep their footing on the treacherous scree slopes.
They were keen to avoid the area’s population of grizzly bears but had run into a pack of wolves when Atencio, 45, noticed a plane flying overhead.
Moments later they heard a sputtering engine followed by a deep boom as the plane came down.
‘We looked at each other and said, ‘What the hell was that?’ said Atencio.
They struggled up a hill and saw black smoke billowing from the trees below them on the other side.
Neither man could raise a signal on his cellphone but Atencio was able to send out an SOS on his Garmin inReach satellite phone before getting a text through to his wife Ami.
Meanwhile they began scrambling down the hill to the crash site, sweating under the weight of their 40-pound hunting packs.
It was ‘kind of a blur’, Atencio recalled. ‘We were both blasting through the trees as fast as we could.’
Larsen, a certified athletic trainer, reached the scene first as Atencio continued trying to raise the alarm, eventually enabling the Park County Sheriff’s Office to pinpoint their location.
Fires were raging around the injured pilot as the two hunters tried to pull him to safety
Atencio used his experience as a Black Hawk pilot for the Wyoming Army Guard to help guide a rescue helicopter to a safe landing spot
The injured man was airlifted to a hospital in Billings, Montana, where he remains
Smoke engulfed the scene as Larsen yelled ‘Is anybody there?’ before spotting the pilot lying face-down in the middle of the burning trees.
‘Yes, I’m here,’ he called back. ‘I think my back’s broke.’
Larsen could not see anyone else in the burning fuselage, but the pilot told him that his passenger was lying dead in the wreckage.
‘That’s when it started to hit home how serious this was,’ Larsen said.
Burning timbers were beginning to collapse around the injured and already badly burned man as the flames crept closer.
Atencio knew from his time working as a firefighter that the trees themselves could fall at any moment, and the two friends realized they had just moments left to save him.
Terrified of aggravating his spinal injury they tried to maneuver a tarp under him but it tore when they attempted to lift him.
Atencio then pulled his hunting pack apart to create a makeshift harness which they managed to strap him to before it ‘kind of gave out’.
‘Leave me here,’ he told them as struggled to help.
But the pair did not leave him, eventually pulling him clear of danger after a second attempt.
‘He was a trooper for making it as far as he did,’ Larsen recalled.
With the man removed from immediate peril and help on the way Atencio drew on his experience as with the National Guard to identify a safe landing spot for the rescue helicopter.
And he talked the crew down as they landed on a spur of the mountain just 75 yards from the crash site.
‘I’m usually on the other end of this stuff,’ he said.
The pair helped first responders load the injured man onto the helicopter and watched as it took off for a hospital in Billings, Montana.
But as the flames began to burn out the pair returned to the site of the crash and found the body of the plane’s passenger lying dead by the wreckage.
Park County Coroner Cody Gortmaker identified the woman on Monday as 78-year-old Mary Lou Sanderson of Lake Havasu in Arizona.
Neither man could raise a signal on his cellphone but Atencio was able to send out an SOS on his Garmin inReach satellite phone before getting a text through to his wife Ami, pictured
‘I’m usually on the other end of this stuff,’ Atencio said after talking the rescue pilots down
The pilot remains in hospital receiving treatment for his injuries, and the National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation into what went wrong with the couple’s American Champion 8GCBC.
The two friends reassembled their battered hunting packs and set out for home where they were greeted as heroes as news of their story spread.
‘Holy s***!’ wrote Brian Peter on Facebook. ‘Sometimes you hear about the right person being there at the right time. It couldn’t be more true than this right here!’
‘I can’t imagine the adrenaline rush you experienced,’ added Morgan Jeanne. ‘I hope your burns aren’t too bad and that an outdoor company gifts you with another hunting pack!’
‘I feel like we were supposed to be there,’ Atencio said. ‘Though it’s unfortunate, what happened.’