Rescue center helps save pilot

11/19/2003 - HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AFPN) -- A Coast Guard pilot is alive thanks to quick action from Pacific Rescue Coordination Center workers on Nov. 16, officials said.

Lt. Cmdr. William Spears, who was en route to Oakland, Calif., from Honolulu, crashed his single-engine Canard Pusher aircraft into the ocean Nov. 14, following an in-flight emergency.

The center coordinates and controls all U.S. military search-and-rescue activities in the Pacific. Center officials launched two Hawaii Air National Guard F-15 Eagle aircraft to try to intercept the Pusher before it crashed. The F-15 pilots did not find the Pusher but saw an oil slick off the north coast of Maui.

Coast Guardsmen then launched a C-130 Hercules aircraft to find the wreckage, and an HH-65 helicopter crew hoisted Spears from the floating debris and moved him to Maui Memorial Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.

"The immediate response of the F-15s was vital to locating and rescuing Spears," said Maj. Joe Martinez, rescue center commander.

The rescue center officials routinely coordinate military search-and-rescue missions in the Pacific region. They also coordinate civilian search-and-rescue missions such as this one on a noninterference basis. Since 2001, they have been credited with saving nearly 200 lives. (Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces News Service)