NEADS Radar Analyst Honored for Assisting
Civil Air Patrol's Search for Downed Copter
ROME -- A Civil Air Patrol (CAP) search plane found a downed helicopter with four survivors in Florida last September. The successful find was the result of a trained search-and-rescue air crew and a lot of coordination behind the scenes -- including some key activity at the Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) in Rome, NY.
The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center contacted NEADS, which monitors air traffic over the eastern half of the country, for assistance after a helicopter out of Tamiami, Florida failed to arrive at its destination in Marathon, Florida.
The Air Force had launched a CAP crew, but there was a huge area to search, and time was of the essence. NEADS has the technology that enables it to do a "real time" look back at any aircraft at any given time, explained Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Paul Kulesa of Newport, who was on duty at NEADS when the rescue was launched.
"This gives us the ability to spot where an aircraft may stop, but not necessarily land," he said. "...we are able to view aircraft data from specific periods in certain areas of the country, given we can insert the specific data information. In our case, we had to use a broad range of information. Master Sgt. Eugene DeHart and I began the process and kept our eyes on the multitude of aircraft flying during the wide time frame we had to deal with."
He noted that "about 20 minutes into our playbacks, Lt. Guy Loughridge of the Civil Air Patrol called in." Loughridge is CAP's radar data expert. "We began our information sharing process and passed back and forth some key points of interest. Lieutenant Loughridge and I agreed on a certain track of data that required a physical search."
That key bit of information put the copter's last known position near the edge of the Everglades and Florida Bay's open waters. And it led the air crew to the downed helicopter, flipped over and partially submerged with four men standing on it and waving frantically.
Since the water shorted out the copter's radio and emergency locator transmitter (ELT), and none of their cell phones worked, the tracking of radar data became all the more critical.
Col. John P. Bartholf, commander of NEADS, recently recognized Sergeant Kulesa's time-critical role and presented him with a Commander's Commendation Award.
Kulesa's "diligent, meticulous manipulation of the archived raw radar data and close coordination directly with the Civil Air Patrol resulted in the expeditious and successful rescue of all four civilian passengers," the commendation states.
The incident was not Kulesa's first time working with the Civil Air Patrol, which is the search-and-rescue, cadet-mentoring and aerospace-education auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. He has assisted in several searches, plus he is a CAP member himself, serving as deputy commander of Utica Cadet Squadron (which meets Tuesday evenings at Immanuel Baptist Church in New Hartford).
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For Media Inquiries:
1st Lt. Bob Stronach, CAP
Public Affairs Officer
Central New York Group, Civil Air Patrol
(315) 796-9468