Vancouver born-and-raised pilot Sam T. James was several months into his first professional flying job in Alaska when he helped save two hunters stranded on a Bering Sea island.
The hunters, from the village of Savoonga, Alaska, on St. Lawrence Island, used a marine VHF radio to call for help as the Beechcraft 1900 James was co-piloting flew overhead.
“It was barely readable. Their voices were frantic, and we could hardly understand where they said they were,” James said.
For his efforts during the rescue in late November, Red Cross Alaska is honoring James and Captain Natoshia Burdick at its 20th Annual Real Heroes Breakfast. The award ceremony mirrors the heroes breakfast held every year in Vancouver that recognizes local bravery.
James was invited to accept the award on April 16 in Anchorage. He can’t make it, however. He relocated back to Clark County and started a job at Horizon Air on April 1.
James said he was the first officer during two flights that aided in the rescue of the men. He said he did most of the flying while the captain communicated with the stranded hunters.
The Red Cross chose the Transportation Safety category to honor James and Burdick. Regional Communications Officer Cari Dighton said the show will go on without James, and they will mail his award after the ceremony.
James was stationed in Nome, Alaska, the day after Thanksgiving when his employer, Ravn Alaska, got a call to fly to two villages on St. Lawrence Island. A crew loaded up and headed out; they were minutes away from Savoonga when a barely audible call came across the radio.
The crew was monitoring the village’s radio channel, a general practice for air carriers across the state. James said it’s likely the hunters were using the channel to reach someone back home. But the Punuk Islands, on which the hunters were stranded after their boat broke down, is near the southeast tip of St. Lawrence, about 68 miles as the crow flies from the village.
When James landed, he and Burdick relayed what they heard over the radio to a company agent who coordinates flights to the island’s villages.
Then, the pilots got permission to reroute near the Punuk Islands on the return flight to Nome to try to pick up the hunters’ signal a second time. Aviation officials gave the go-ahead but directed James to operate under instrument flight rules, where pilots navigate based on electronic signals rather than outside visual cues.
James approached the island and the captain began hailing the hunters, he said. The plan was a success.
“They had been stranded there for days. One of them was sick … and they were almost out of firewood,” James said. “They were asking if they could burn down one of the cabins they were near to stay warm.”
Locals were adamantly opposed to setting fire to the cabin, but the hunters ended up using some of its wood to stay warm, James said.
“There was a great deal of relief in their voices, once they knew someone was aware of where they were,” James said.
A search-and-rescue helicopter dropped supplies to the hunters later that day, including a satellite phone with charged batteries. The next morning, James said, he flew circles around the island once more to check on the men.
With the weather worsening, the Coast Guard launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew out of Kodiak, Alaska, to assist the two men, according to a U.S. Coast Guard 17th District Alaska news release.
“After flying nearly 700 miles across the state of Alaska through snow squalls and freezing fog, we’ve never seen a happier embrace than from that of the stranded hunters greeting their rescuers,” Lt. Daniel Beshoar said in the release.
Both hunters were taken to Nome for medical care. Beshoar said the VHF radio saved their lives. During the rescue, the weather on scene included freezing spray, 14-foot seas, blowing snow, and gale-force winds.
Path to piloting
James said the whole thing was unexpected. Since childhood, he has followed a path toward piloting. He learned how to fly gliders by 14 and obtained his private pilot’s license at 17. He joined the Civil Air Patrol in Vancouver at a young age, but never got the chance to take part in a search and rescue.
“We were just doing the right thing and helping people in need,” he said of the Alaska rescue.
He didn’t meet the men whose lives he helped save, unfortunately.
“I would like to say I hope we provided some comfort in a dangerous situation, and hopefully our paths will cross someday.”
