Two Rescued From Downed Glider

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The pilot and passenger of a Grob G103 were found uninjured on the side of a mountain in Southern California early Sunday. The two were airlifted from their impromptu landing site at the 4,200-foot level in the San Gabriel Mountains at first light. They’d taken a tow to 9,300 feet in the Mt. Baden-Powell area on Saturday and didn’t return to the point of origin, Crystal Airport. It’s not known why the pilot opted to put the glider down. Civil Air Patrol spokesman Capt. Bob Kielholtz said the sailplane was not equipped with an ELT and that prevented a night search for the landing site. While they were waiting for the sun to come up, however, CAP volunteers were able to plot the glider’s probable track using radar data from 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron at Hill AFB in Utah. “Having access to this radar data enabled us to cut response time by focusing the search on the most likely position where they could have landed,” Kielholtz said.

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