An alert from an Apple Watch started a connection between the Loveland Emergency Communications Center at the Loveland Police Department to the sole survivor of a plane crash west of Loveland on Saturday. What followed was hours of a dedicated team working to get rescuers to the survivor, no matter what.
But the wait as crews made their way to him, the wait for someone to save his life, was tough.
“It’s excruciating,” said Rachel Bondy, emergency communications supervisor. “It’s really hard, because not only are you concerned for him and the passengers … you know how dangerous that terrain is. You are starting to be concerned for our responders. You have to be concerned about all these people. And can we get to him fast enough?”
Bondy, who worked with a team of fellow dispatchers Saturday, recounted what the day was like and her feeling toward the work that everyone put in to get rescue crews to the crash site.
The Civil Air Patrol flight crashed near Palisade Mountain Saturday morning, resulting in the death of pilot Susan Wolber and aerial photographer Jay Rhoten. Co-pilot Randall Settergren was the sole survivor of the crash and was eventually air-lifted to the hospital.
The communication center learned of the crash when they got an emergency activation from Settergren’s Apple Watch, saying he was not responding. With emergency activations like this, the team is able to hear through an open line and could hear what sounded like someone who had been hurt, Bondy said.
But the team ultimately lost the signal. One dispatcher, who requested to not be publicly identified, was determined to get in touch with whoever it was.
“She had this gut feeling that something really bad happened,” Bondy said.
Eventually the dispatcher was able to reach Settergren through his watch and began to talk through the situation. This, Bondy said, is when the team learned it was a plane crash.
“Your stomach just drops a bit at the totality of what happened to this person,” she said.
By using latitude and longitude location from the emergency signal as well as flight descriptions from Settergren, the dispatch team got to work coordinating response from local agencies to get help to his location. As that work continued, the dispatcher kept Settergren talking about not only what happened but also about his family and about the other two people in the plane.
Bondy said in situations like this, dispatchers need to keep victims focused on mental tasks while remaining in a safe place as to not send them into shock. While they waited for crews to find him, the dispatcher was reassuring him they were sending help and apologizing that he was in this situation; she was on the phone with Settergren for almost an hour and a half.
This, Bondy said, is what dispatchers see as a privilege: being there for people when they need them.
“You can’t fake caring,” Bondy said. “We do the job for a reason, it is because we truly care about people and we know that at any time we can take someone’s worst day of their life phone call.”
But the waiting did not last forever. While the dispatcher talked to Settergren, crews were able to locate the site of the crash after hiking in through rugged terrain. And though Wolber and Rhoten were pronounced dead, crews saved Settergren and got him to medical help.
When the communications team heard this, Bondy said the room broke into applause.
“When they key that up in the air that ‘we are at him,’ it almost brings tears to your eyes,” she said. “You are just thrilled and you still hope he is OK.”
The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, on Tuesday, said that Settergren was in stable condition.
Bondy spoke highly of the work that the communications team did that Saturday, saying that the dispatcher did a tremendous job at working with Settergren specifically to get him the help he needed. She is a seasoned dispatcher who is empathetic, caring and professional, Bondy said, describing her as “the epitome of a dispatcher you would want on your team.”
Related Articles
Hunter found dead after expedition in Great Sand Dunes National Park
Colorado weather: Waning winter storm leaves more than 3 feet of snow as rescue ops continue
Woman killed in ATV crash in Park County
Missing hiker found dead in Pitkin County’s White River National Forest
Body of hiker killed from fall off of Arikaree Peak recovered
“She handled it as best as anyone could,” Bondy said. “I told her I am so thankful she got that call. She is someone so many of our other dispatchers look up to because she is always on. You want her on your team on the worst of days, the most chaotic of days.”
She also praised the work of all the dispatchers in that room Saturday, for how they handled the situation, saying she was proud of the work they did to help someone in need. Throughout all this, she said, dispatchers continued to take other calls, adding “we don’t have a pause button.”
But seeing her team jump into action in a unique situation like this, Bondy added, is amazing.
“It is something to really be proud of, and I know everybody felt a special part of that (Saturday),” she said, later adding “It takes a team.”