Mission Report
Mission #05M2305A
December 9, 2005
Missing Person Search
Submitted by Capt. Kim Kirschman

At about 0700 local time on Friday, December 9, I received a call from Col Ralph Tomlinson, Iowa Wing Commander, requesting that I assemble a crew for a missing person search mission in the vicinity of Humboldt, Iowa.  Lt Don Wood (observer) and Lt Tony Short (observer) responded to my calls for assistance.  The Des Moines Squadron's regular aircraft, a Cessna 172, was unavailable due to radio problems, so we traveled to Ames to use the Cessna 182 based there.  Following the usual weather briefing and aircraft preflight inspection, we logged our takeoff time at 0902 under sunny skies but the rather cool temperature of -4F. During the flight to Humboldt we were informed that an Iowa State Patrol aircraft was already in the area conducting a search, so when approximately 10 miles from Humboldt we made radio contact with that aircraft's pilot and agreed to use a local highway as a boundary to ensure proper separation.  We arrived over Humboldt at approximately 0930 and spent the next hour flying various search patterns in our part of the search area.  We were searching for a 79 year old woman who had walked away from the Humboldt area hospital the previous evening in subzero weather.  Our search covered much of the community of Humboldt as well as surrounding roads and farm fields.  At approximately 1030 the State Patrol aircraft departed the area, so we shifted our efforts to the part of the search area we had previously avoided..  At approximately 1130 a second CAP aircraft from Cedar Rapids arrived and landed, so we also landed at the Humboldt airport for a break and briefing update.

The second aircraft was tasked with searching various parts of the Humboldt community, while my crew and I were taken into town for lunch.  We returned to the airport shortly after 1300, but prior to being briefed for additional search duties word was received that the missing woman had been found.  Unfortunately, she had not survived the extremely cold temperatures.

The crew already aloft was asked to take photos of the area where the woman was discovered.  Apparently there was some question about the effectiveness of those photos, so as we were preparing to depart for Ames we received a request to also photograph the area in question.  We complied with that request, then set course for Ames, arriving at approximately 1500.

Notes:

1.  At takeoff time there was a temperature inversion; the temperature at about 3000 above ground level was 25 degrees warmer than on the ground;
2.  The FM radio in the aircraft had not been programmed to use the state's Mutual Aid channel, so we were required to communicate with the State Patrol aircraft using standard aviation radios and frequencies;
3.  The subzero temperatures required some jockeying of throttle, mixture, and carburetor heat settings before the airplane's engine would run with acceptable smoothness;
4.  Flight time totaled 3.6 hours;
5.  CAP radio communications, with the exception of the problem mentioned above, were relatively effective.  On some occasions multiple ground and air units attempted to use the same channel simultaneously, but that was not a significant issue;
6.  The Humboldt airport is adjacent to the town, making local transport needs quick and easy, and had an adequate office facility for mission planning;
7.  Large numbers of Humboldt area residents turned out to search for the missing woman;
8.  The exceptionally cold temperatures meant that aircrew were significantly more comfortable than ground teams;
9.  As is probably true in all missing person searches, it takes only moments after beginning the search to be reminded of the difficulty of finding a person who may be anywhere within an area of several square miles;
10. Since the speed of air travel often puts aircrew on-scene before ground teams and incident command staff are present, searches in the early stages may be conducted based on incomplete information; it can take hours to gather full information, create mission plans, and implement those plans;
11. This photo shows one search area.  Taken from an altitude of 800 feet, the picture shows the tracks left in the snow by ground teams searching a nearby field.