911 Delay Linked to Tragic Helicopter Crash

The Santa Fe County (NM) regional comm center has released 911 logging tapes of call made by a lost hiker in the mountains of the Pecos National Wilderness last week, revealing that it took 50 minutes for dispatchers to handle the calls, locate the caller and transfer the woman to the state police comm center. Eventually a state police helicopter was launched to retrieve the woman at 12,000 ft. on the mountain. But as darkness and clouds moved in on the mountain, the helicopter clipped a tree after take-off and crashed, killing the pilot and the hiker. Another officer on-board survived and hiked out to alert rescuers. The time spent handling the woman’s first 911 calls raises the question if an earlier helicopter response would have avoided the darkness and weather that may have contributed to the accident. Read more here. Update: Santa Fe County sheriff Greg Solano disputed the delay in connecting the hiker to the state police, but did say her several calls kept being cut-off. Solano said he’s investigating why the hiker’s calls kept coming in on an administrative line. Listen to some of the logging tapes and read more here.