The team that flies to the rescue when someone is stranded on a mountain or a cliff in Washington is about to get better equipped. The King County Sheriff's Office has just secured a one million dollar boost for its air support unit, an infusion of money aimed squarely at keeping the county's rescue helicopter flying and its crews safer on their most difficult calls. For a program that operates far beyond the county's own borders, it is a significant lift.
The money came through the federal government, and according to FOX 13 Seattle it was Congresswoman Kim Schrier who helped secure the funds. To mark the announcement, Schrier gathered with local leaders at Boeing Field, the county's airfield south of Seattle, standing alongside one of the two rescue Hueys that the sheriff's office depends on when a call for help comes in. The setting underscored exactly what the dollars are meant to protect.
The upgrades themselves are practical rather than flashy. The rescue helicopter is set to receive a new hoist system, the mechanism used to lift injured or trapped people up to the aircraft, along with new instrument panels for the crew. Both improvements are intended to make the rescues safer, reducing the risk to the people being pulled to safety and to the aviators carrying out some of the most demanding flying in emergency response.
The reach of the program is one reason officials framed the funding as so important. The King County air support unit does not confine itself to the county line, instead responding to emergencies all over the state. That means the single hoist and the crews behind it are often the resource that remote communities and backcountry travelers across Washington rely on when there is no other way to reach someone in trouble.
During the event at Boeing Field, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall pointed to a rescue from the previous year to show what the aircraft can do. In that case, a skier fell one thousand feet off a cliff at Stevens Pass and had to be airlifted to safety. Strikingly, it was the skier's own Apple Watch that first alerted authorities to the fall, a small piece of technology that set the larger rescue in motion.
The timing of the announcement is no accident. The sheriff's rescue program runs all year long, but officials noted that right now is its busy season, as warm weather sends more hikers, climbers and other outdoor enthusiasts into the mountains and along the coast. With demand climbing along with the crowds, the county is betting that a stronger, safer air support unit will be ready for whatever the summer brings.