BOSTON — A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod hoisted a climber Saturday from a cliff near the Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park in Maine.
At about 1:45 p.m. Saturday, a watchstander from the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, the agency responsible for coordinating inland search and rescue, called the Coast Guard after a National Park Service ranger reported a hiker fell from an 80-foot cliff.
A rescue team was on scene attempting to rappel down the cliff to provide medical assistance, but required help extracting the man to a landing zone for transfer to emergency services personnel.
Air Station Cape Cod launched an MH-60 helicopter crew who arrived on scene, performed a safety evaluation, then hoisted the man into the aircraft.
Following the hoist, the aircrew landed in a ball field in Bar Harbor, Maine, to transfer the climber’s care to awaiting EMS. He was taken to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor where he was reported to have an arm and leg injury.
Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod operates with MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters and HC-144A Ocean Sentry fixed-wing aircraft, and is the only Coast Guard aviation facility in the northeast. They are responsible for the waters from New Jersey to the Canadian border.