We had a call for a small plane down at 6:04 AM.
Caller was the pilot, calling from a cell phone, in the downed plane, which he reported as "somewhere to the south of the runway, in a pine forest"- no better location was available. The area is heavily wooded. There was a passenger in the plane as well.

Weather conditions were very foggy.

Arriving crews searched for the plane for about an hour, it was upside-down, located somewhere south of the air strip as indicated by the pilot. Extrication was fairly quick, and due to the mode of injury, both pilot and patient were transported to hospital by air. There were a few moments of difficulty getting the helicopter to the landing zone to to isolated heavy fog in the area.

During this incident, one of responding companies got an additional call, fortunately, command has requested a cover of their station at the onset of the plane down call, so that call was handled as well.

This was a relatively easy call, everyone worked well together, preplans and communications worked as needed.

Some learning lessons for others:

- Geolocation of cell phones is not practical in rural areas. Not only was locating the cell phone not possible for us, even if it was....

- GPS does not work on foggy days in a pine forest in a valley. That's why we have printed maps in all the trucks, and when you're looking in the woods for something...

- Topo Maps are a must-have.

- Local Area Tactical Communications are always better with point-to-point radio rather than repeater radios. Analog radios are MUCH better tactical communications tools than digital radios.


All in all, a good well managed call, a good outcome (well, I mean except for the plane), and a satisfying emergency services experience.