Sgt. 1st Class Cassandra Antes, a paramedic assigned to Task Force Smokey, prepares to be hoisted down to rescue an injured hiker May 20, 2024, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – A UH-60 Black Hawk medical flight crew from the Tennessee National Guard rescued a severely injured hiker in a remote part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park May 20.
Shortly before 7 p.m., the Tennessee National Guard and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency were notified that a hiker needed immediate medical assistance. The hiker was located more than 5,000 feet above sea level at Icewater Spring.
TEMA approved the mission just after 7:15 p.m., and less than an hour later, a flight crew from the Tennessee National Guard’s Task Force Smokey took off from McGhee-Tyson Air National Guard Base to rescue the hiker.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Peter Neveu and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andres Salas were the pilots for the mission. Sgt. 1st Class Cassandra Antes was the paramedic, and Staff Sgts. Daniel Bandy and Ernest Harlan were the crew chiefs.
The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter arrived on the scene about 20 minutes later and quickly performed a hoist rescue, lifting the hiker into the aircraft.
The crew transported the hiker to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, arriving shortly after 9 p.m. The entire operation, from the first notification of a potential mission to patient handoff at the hospital, took about two hours.
