Posted on 01/06/2007 6:42:35 AM PST by aculeus
Early last month my son, James Kim, died of hypothermia in a snowy wilderness in Oregon after setting out on foot to seek help for his family, who were stranded in a car.
My son's death was a tragedy that could have been prevented. A wrong turn on a poorly marked wilderness road need not have resulted in the ordeal of James's wife and two daughters, nor his death while trying desperately to find help. I am sharing some of the hard-learned lessons that I took away from my family's trauma in the hope of making it less likely that others will suffer the same fate.
[snip]
Finally, the Federal Aviation Administration classification code for Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) to limit media presence during a life-or-death search-and-rescue operation should be more strictly enforced. A TFR is used to restrict aircraft operations within designated areas to separate "non-participating" aircraft from those engaged in official activities, including search-and-rescue operations.
Unfortunately for James, aviation authorities acquiesced to media requests to relax restrictions and allowed low-altitude media flights in the area while the aerial search was still underway. This untimely and irrational decision caused many rescue helicopters to abandon their operations for one full afternoon due to dangerous conditions created by media airplanes. It took personal pleas to Washington to get restrictions reinstated. The search, not media interest, should be the top priority.
With his last heroic determination to rescue his family, James proved himself to be a man of action. My son deserves a legacy worthy of that man. As a tribute to him, I am determined to follow his lead and do all I can to prevent another senseless tragedy. ing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Shades of Diana, Princess of Wales.
No. Read post 57 and most particularly the link there. The media is the scapegoat for government incompetence.
The article was printed by the Washington Post. They don't normally do human interest pieces. They're into influencing the government, particularly from a leftist point of view. I don't know how the story came to be written and placed in the WaPo, but some friendly help from a friendly bureaucrat making suggestions and giving out editors phone numbers wouldn't surprise me.
Seems there is plenty of blame to go round.
I was just thinking that a small hatchet, a tarp, bundle of parachute cord, and some flares might also be good to include in an emergency kit. Hatchet to cut firewood if the gas in the car runs out, tarp and parachute cord to make a temporary shelter if need be, and flares to help signal searchers on the ground and in the air.
IMHO, the fault is Mr. Kim's. It was a tragic accident that did not have to occur.
My parents retired to Roseburg, OR, so I am quite familiar with the area in which Mr. Kim got lost. In conversations with my mother, she told me that it was snowing heavily that night. After dinner, the wise and prudent thing to do would have been to spend the night at a motel, and continue the trip the following morning.
I've read only snippets of the reporting, so I don't know how experienced Mr. Kim was at driving in snowy conditions. If my guess is correct, he was unfamiliar with driving under those conditions.
All wise and true words, but the moment a state - county -or local agency directs or even permits private individuals to act in their behalf, they become liable for ALL actions or injuries.
As all counties and the state basically self insure, no body is going to expose their agency to any risk.
And speaking as a former state employee I can guarantee everyone involved had that in mind, but when they weight the risk, it will never happen.
With that said, my heart goes out to the Kim family, may they find peace.
Understand where you are coming from. There are still many questions that need to be answered yet.
I think there is plenty of room to see everyone's mistakes with this tragedy.
James Kim certainly made his share and he paid. I think there is a lot of room for improvement in the process surrounding Search and Rescue and I think we need to get to the bottom of the questions surrounding this before we can improve it.
I think the Forest Service has a lot to be reviewed here - IMHO they have messed up pretty badly. James Kim certainly made fatal mistakes out there but he should have never even had the chance to get where he was.
What do you do about your voice now?
I think Spencer Kim wants to change some things so no one else has to experience what James Kim experienced.
I don't there is a blame game going on. He just wants the facts out there to affect change.
You go baby! Happy New Year!
Kim was no.1 on the screw up list. But I don't want to bash the dead. He certainly did the best he could.
After that obviously the government ran around claiming they were doing this and that, while the real work was done by civilians.
The government did what it could, but it wasn't enough. The civilians who found the cell phone clues, and took it on themselves to search in their personal helicopters were motivated by the stories they saw in the media. Bashing the media is not only barking up the wrong tree, it's bashing on one of the key elements that saved the family.
When the media spews leftist propaganda, bash away, but in this case they did far more to help than hurt.
As a pilot, I'm not buying for one minute that there were "too many" civilian aircraft in the area for the military to fly. Some agency likely had a Washington policy that they would not fly without exclusive access to the area, but the idiotic policy is at fault, not the media. This wasn't some training exercise, people were dying out there, and the more lookers the better. This wasn't some small piece of airspace, it was a whole county or two, there was no need for exclusive military access.
Hello all,
Have been watching this thread and think some need to take a deep breath and actually read the posting.
First, narby and Criminal#18F, think you have had the most sane replies of all. Thank you so much!
Second, think some of the remainder are taken in by the melodrama/ hyperbolae of the Post. I have no love of the MSM, but really have to take apart how they "parse" a story.
Third, again this is an incomplete story. The particulars of the TFR are no longer on the web, might get them when I get back to work.
Ok, my background. Thirty years experience in SAR/CAP, aviation (pilot), Air Traffic Control (controller and automation) and Aeronautics (engineering major).
I can't place blame directly, even with those credentials!!! Some information is still lacking.
The Post "implies" that private pilots violated the TFR forcing SAR helicopters to abandon the search. Let's read the timeline more carefully.
"Unfortunately for James, aviation authorities acquiesced to media requests to relax restrictions and allowed low-altitude media flights in the area while the aerial search was still underway. This untimely and irrational decision caused many rescue helicopters to abandon their operations for one full afternoon due to dangerous conditions created by media airplanes. It took personal pleas to Washington to get restrictions reinstated. The search, not media interest, should be the top priority. "
There was a TFR, then there wasn't. Private aircraft were allowed to re-enter the airspace.
The pilots on this thread know that in Part 91 of the FAA regulations there are many rules about who has "right of way" in the sky. Also, the "pilot in command" has the ultimate responsibility for separation with other aircraft. (there are even rules about a blimp having right of way vs. powered aircraft and closer to mountain vs. further out, etc, etc.)
In other words, the pilot in command flies the aircraft, maintaing separation from terrain and other aircraft. Observers observe!
OK, on to the next bit,
The CAP (Civil Air Patrol) was NOT invited to the search! They are the primary SAR for downed aircraft. While they primarily fly fixed wing aircraft (not suitable in canyons), they could have covered much more terrain and put more "eyes in the sky". (search CAPblog)
Before you start randomly blasting SAR orginasations, just remember they also have people that sacrifice their lives in attempt rescue those of the stupid ones.
My last non-commercial flight was with CAP on a practice SAR mission. They want closer cooperation with FAA in order to avoid some of these fiascos.
You should also check out the Helicopter Associtaion International (search HAI), they also have some info about how "private" helicopter found the rest of the Kim family.
Ok, I've pretty much had my say. We don't know the full story from the WAPO (what else is new?).
Be Nice!! No reason to demand an apology when you don't know all the facts.
Rohn
BTW, did survival traing. My car has flares, shovel, batteries, quilts, knives, extra clothing, jumper cables, etc. When the media announced that OJ Simpson had some of those items, I thought for a moment I might be guilty :)!!!
The best we can hope for is this sad event will never be repeated.
Anywhere.
Another thing we don't know: Did Mrs Kim harangue Mr Kim to "do something" to "go for help"? Could have happened. Also could not have happened.
Nowhere, except the article from Spencer Kim in the WaPo, is there a hint that it was media aircraft in the area that kept National Guard helicopters on the ground. Instead there is a specific mention on Dec 1 of ONG waiting on the ground until the private helicopters hired by the Kim family left the area where the car was eventually found. Had the private helicopters not been asked to leave the area in favor of the National Guard, it is concievable that the Kims would have been found. James Kim had not yet left the car on that day, and would be alive.
One section of the Firehouse.com article is particularly damning:
Rubrecht [person in charge at the county Sheriff's office] said she didn't even know Rachor [guy who found family] was in the air. "I had no clue John Rachor was in the air until after Kati was found," she said. "No clue." In fact, she said that "I really never felt like I had a handle on the air operation." "I'm not afraid to tell anybody that it was overwhelming beyond anything I'd ever handled before," she said.
In particular, Ms. Rubrecht had talked to a ground searcher that had partially gone down the road where the family was found. The searcher had seen tire tracks and said that someone should go the rest of the distance down that road. Rubrecht misunderstood, thinking the road had been totally searched, and crossed that road off the list to be searched again.
In the end, it is particularly insulting that the Oregon National Guard (and I think a lot of other federal aviation assets, like the Forest Service) refuse to fly in airspace that is either not positively controlled, or reserved for their exclusive use. I don't demand such services when I fly my airplane. That the feds do this is contemptable.
The information is out there, usually just a couple of clicks away, but most people don't care, and in the final analysis, I can't do jack about Islamic fascism in the Phillipines, so I can fret over it pointlessly, or watch the Patriots/Jets.
Excellent post. I understand that a mama loves her son, but there is an idiotic tendency to blame everyone except the person who put himself in danger.
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