Southern Oregon's first collaborative search effort under a new task force proved "seamless," a Jackson County helicopter pilot said Monday.
Pilot Randy Jones located 47-year-old Christian Mankey, of Brookings, Sunday morning in the rugged Emily Creek drainage of the Chetco River. Jones was flying as part of the California/Oregon Regional Search and Rescue task force, formed Feb. 8 in response to December's highly scrutinized search for James Kim, whose body was recovered from the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest near Galice.
"It's about the region pooling their resources and working together," said Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters. "We're all on the same team, and the jurisdictional boundaries are gone."
Jones and other members of the Sheriff's Department's search and rescue division were called in to assist Curry County officials two days after the search for Mankey began. Arriving within two hours, Jones and his co-pilot, Randy Pace, spotted Mankey with a heat-sensing device purchased after the Kim search. Mankey was suffering from hypothermia and couldn't stand to signal the helicopter but managed to move a machete he was carrying enough to create a flash the pilots could see, Jones said.
"He was worn out," Winters said.
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"He was totally sopping wet," Jones said.
Mankey's wife, Vicki, had planned to pick him up downstream at Loeb State Park Friday afternoon but contacted the Curry County Sheriff's Department when he did not arrive, the Curry Coastal Pilot reported Monday.
Ground searchers carried Mankey across a deep ravine and through swift water to a gravel bar where Jones had landed his helicopter. Given dry clothes, food and water, Mankey began to recover en route to a waiting ambulance, Jones said.
With its tall trees and steep grade, Winters said, Sunday's rescue scene is very similar to the Big Windy Creek drainage, where searchers on Dec. 6 located the body of James Kim. The 35-year-old San Francisco resident succumbed to hypothermia while trying to hike out of the Bear Camp Road area to get help for his snowbound family. His wife, Kati, and their two young daughters were rescued Dec. 4. The family took a wrong turn Nov. 25 on the way to Gold Beach.
Agencies involved in the Kims' rescue were criticized by some, including James Kim's father, for issues that including initial confusion over which agency was in charge. Winters said the new task force is intended to improve communication and make searches more efficient. Officials are creating a database that will relay availability of participating agencies' equipment and personnel, Winters added.
Collaboration spreads the cost of large searches over the many agencies involved and makes the task force eligible for outside funding like federal grants, Winters said.
The task force comprises sheriff's departments from Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Klamath, Del Norte, Curry, Siskiyou and Coos counties, Oregon State Police, the Civil Air Patrol, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, Carson Helicopters, Brim Aviation, the Crater Lake National Park Service and the American Red Cross.
