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Updated: 4:03 PM Mar 12, 2010
WV Senate Honors Helicopter Crash Rescuers
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) The West Virginia Senate plans to honor members of the National Guard and airmen who helped rescue 17 people aboard a downed Navy helicopter and a stranded mother and baby last month.
Posted: 11:12 AM Mar 12, 2010Reporter: P.J. DICKERSCHEID - Associated Press Writer |
Courtesy: West Virginia Legislature
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Gov. Joe Manchin and the West Virginia Senate recognized members of the West Virginia Army and Air National guard who battled ice, snow and rugged terrain to rescue 17 crew members aboard a downed Navy helicopter last month.
Nearly two dozen rescuers and victims attended Friday's ceremony at the state Capitol.
Though no one suffered life-threatening injuries when the MH-60S helicopter crashed February 18 in Pocahontas County, snow, ice and subfreezing temperatures combined with rugged terrain to make for a difficult search and rescue effort.
Investigators are still trying to determine why the MH-60S helicopter crashed while en route from Fort Pickett, Virginia to Camp Dawson as part of a training exercise.
The helicopter is based at the Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
Lawmakers also recognized guardsmen who fashioned homemade snowshoes out of pine branches and clothes line and hiked about three miles through heavy snow drifts to rescue a Morgan County mother and her four-week-old baby.
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