Originally Posted By: bsmith
the question i have is : who pays for the chopper? nevada county or the military or a private entity that has an arrangement with the county?


Originally Posted By: benjammin
I note that the recent Mt. Hood recovery of a dead hiker utilized Blackhawk helicopters owned by the National Guard. Last I remember, the National Guard is paid for out of government funds. I have yet to hear that the survivor was billed for the service. That means every citizen of Oregon gets to pay for their mistake.


It comes out of the training budget of the military. You have to bear in mind that the chopper crew are required a certain number of hours a month of training. That's the same if they're using it for SAR, public affair events or generally just flying around burning fuel. If you talk to them they'ed rather be spend that time doing something useful like SAR or medical evacuation. It costs the same either way so you can't always count that as a cost of the search.


Edited by ki7he (01/24/09 01:51 AM)