Clover Valley Ranchers Who Rescued Pilot Attend His Celebration
By Dianna Troyer
Rain, sleet, and snow pelted Jordan Brough and a group of friends and family in early July as they returned to the mountain where, just 2 months earlier, they helped rescue a pilot after a snowy crash.
“We couldn’t believe it—the weather reminded us of the day his plane crashed,” says Jordan, a rancher in Clover Valley where he grew up. “We joked it was fine because we always need the moisture. I told him he was welcome to come back anytime as long as he brings snow.”
The pilot, Doug Patterson, of Oakland, California, asked Jordan to hike with him and his wife, Lynn, up to his crashed plane above the timberline near Hole in the Mountain Peak. He wanted to retrieve his belongings from the plane before his insurance company recovered the aircraft as a routine part of the claims process.
About halfway through the three-hour hike up to the crash site, Doug’s wife and others decided to turn back because they were soaking wet and cold.
“Doug, my nephew and I kept going,” Jordan says. “He wanted his flight log, laptop, and other personal items. We helped him carry his stuff down the mountain.”
Earlier, Doug had invited Jordan and other rescuers to celebrate his survival of the plane crash in August in Oakland.
“We told him we wouldn’t miss it,” Jordan says. Hiking up the mountainside triggered memories of the harrowing ordeal. Jordan thought of all the circumstances he attributes to divine intervention that kept Doug alive.
“So many things could have gone wrong that would have led to a totally different outcome,” Jordan says. “For me, that crash and the fact that Doug had minor injuries is a testament that there is a God.” Doug, an airplane mechanic, was flying home after watching his son graduate from college in Colorado. Over northern Nevada, he encountered a severe weather system.
He tried to land in Wells, but clouds obscured the runway. Instead, he decided to try the Elko airport and began gaining altitude. Suddenly, a downdraft forced him into the mountainside.
When the plane crashed at 10:30 a.m. on May 17, it sent an iPhone crash notification, similar to an Amber Alert, to the Elko County Regional Dispatch Center as well as to other area iPhones. The GPS coordinates indicated the crash was at an elevation of 10,200 feet south of Hole in the Mountain Peak in the East Humboldt Mountain Range. Due to the severe weather and dense cloud cover, air rescue was grounded.
“I was in church when my phone pinged,” Jordan says. When Jordan told his friends, ranchers Jakob Taylor and Braden Whitaker, they decided to respond to the community emergency and look for the plane. Analyzing the crash site’s GPS coordinates, Braden realized it was behind his house.
About 11:30 a.m., they jumped in Braden’s side-by-side and drove up the Weeks Access Road to get as close as possible to the site. Deputy Jake Trice, stationed in Wells, was walking along the road, too, so they picked him up.
The 4 began the arduous trek up the snowy steep slope, calculating the crash site was about 2,000 feet above them. “It took us about 3 hours to get up there,” Jordan says. “When we reached the site of the coordinates, it was so cloudy we couldn’t see very far. We started yelling, ‘Hey,’ to see if the pilot could hear us. We kept yelling but didn’t hear anything and were ready to turn back. Then Braden heard a muffled call for help.”
Following the sound, they found the plane stuck in the snow at an angle, with the wings intact and the tail broken. Doug pushed up his cockpit’s canopy.
“We worried he might be in shock,” Jordan said. “We asked if he was pinned in the plane, hurt, and what his name was. He told us it was hard to breathe, and his shoulder ached.”
The 4 brainstormed about how to get Doug out of the plane and down the slippery slope without disturbing the wreckage and causing a slide.
“We didn’t want to get too close to the plane for fear of dislodging it, so we had him walk about 10 feet toward us,” Jordan says. “He was weak and cold. There was a cliff with a narrow, snowy ledge he would have to walk down, and we worried he would fall and slide away.”
Using a rope Deputy Trice had brought, Jordan tied it around Doug’s belt. Braden took off his belt and secured it around Doug’s wrist. At 5:30 p.m., they maneuvered Doug slowly down the ledge. “We held tight to the rope and belt to keep him standing in several places,” Jordan says.
Eventually, they got him safely to a flat place where a helicopter could land, about 200 yards from the crash site. They marveled at the precise place where the plane had crashed.
“It was cushioned just right,” Jordan says. “About 6 inches of fresh snow covered a layer of very hard and icy snow, which kept the plane in place and stopped it from sliding down the mountain. All that snow was covering a thicket of ceanothus shrubs, so together the snow and vegetation absorbed the impact. Plus, with the plane’s engine stalled, it hit with less force.”
Deputy Trice coordinated a helicopter evacuation. At about 6:30 p.m., Doug was flown off the mountain, and the Wells ambulance service transported him to the hospital in Elko.
Then the helicopter pilot came back for the ranchers. As they flew down the mountain, they photographed the crash site and were amazed at what they had accomplished and that Doug had survived. By about 8 p.m., they were back home.
A few days later, Jordan wondered how Doug was doing and called a cellphone number Deputy Trice had shared.
“Doug said he was recovering from a broken sternum and collapsed lung,” Jordan says. “He plans to keep on flying.”
The plane is no longer on the mountainside. In mid-July, the insurance company hired a recovery crew with a specialized heavy-lift helicopter to cut the plane into sections and haul it away on a trailer.
“The crash and befriending the pilot is a once-in-a-lifetime story we’ll always remember and tell our kids about for a long time,” he says. “People still tell us they can’t believe how it all turned out.”