BOULEVARD, Calif. — CBP’s U.S. Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations (AMO) collaborated with the San Diego Sheriff’s Office and Cal Fire to rescue an injured man on Friday.
At approximately 12:30 p.m., Border Patrol agents received a call from the San Diego Sheriff’s Office with a request for assistance in locating an injured cyclist. The cyclist told dispatchers he was badly injured and in need of medical assistance in east San Diego County. Agents immediately requested the help of an AMO air asset. An AMO helicopter responded to the man’s general location and located him in a mountain wilderness area approximately five and a half miles northeast of Boulevard.
Additional assistance was required due to the remoteness of the injured man’s location. The AMO helicopter’s pilot again coordinated with the Border Patrol to identify a safe landing zone near Interstate 8 where two Border Patrol agents boarded the aircraft to assist.
The helicopter then returned to the wilderness area and identified a safe landing zone approximately three quarters of a mile from the injured man’s location. The two Border Patrol agents along with an AMO support pilot cross trained as an emergency medical technician exited at the landing zone and hiked to the man’s mountainside location where they stabilized him.
At approximately 3:00 p.m., the San Diego Sheriff’s Office Copter 10 arrived at the scene carrying a Cal Fire rescue team to coordinate the man’s extraction from the mountains. At 3:15 p.m., the man was successfully hoisted and air lifted to a nearby medical facility for further treatment.
“Our agents are trained and ready to answer the call for help, no matter the situation”, said U.S. Border Patrol, San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Patricia D. McGurk-Daniel. Director of San Diego Air and Marine Operations Brandon Tucker said, “We are thankful for our partners at the San Diego Sheriff’s Office and Cal Fire who provided additional resources to help rescue this man and get him to safety.”