Alaska Air Guard rescues state trooper whose plane crashed Published March 23, 2006 By 2nd Lt. Amy Bombassaro Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs CAMP DENALI, Alaska (AFPN) -- Members of the Alaska Air National Guard saved a state trooper March 22 after his personal Piper Cub aircraft crashed 90 miles north of Dillingham. The pilot, Justin Rodgers, is a trooper with the Dillingham post of the Alaska Bureau of Wildlife Enforcement. Officer Rodgers and his father, Charles, were flying in two separate Piper Cub planes. Officer Rodgers separated to land his aircraft. When his father flew to the landing site, he found the downed, burning plane and reported the accident using an emergency frequency that was picked up by the Regional Air Operations Center at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. An HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter and an HC-130 Hercules rescue tanker carrying pararescuemen dispatched from Kulis Air National Guard Base in Anchorage, Alaska, at about 10 p.m. After locating the site of the crash, shortly after midnight, the HH-60 Pavehawk landed and the pararescuemen went to work. Officer Rodgers emerged from a snow hole he had built away from the aircraft and signaled to the pararescuemen for help. He was suffering from severe hypothermia, a dislocated shoulder and other related injuries. The pararescue team stabilized and loaded him onto the HH-60. The pararescuemen reported that the outer layer of his clothing was burned from the crash. “He was wearing several sets of very durable pants,” Captian Budd said. “Pararescuemen assume the added layers assisted in his survival.” The ANG aircrew then flew to Illiamna Airport, where they transferred him to a HC-130 to accelerate flying time to Kulis. Upon arrival to the base, officer Rodgers was moved to a civilian ambulance that transported him to Providence Hospital in Anchorage. Mr. Wilkinson said officer Rodgers has been a trooper since September 1997, and his father is a retired trooper. “We’re very, very thankful that he was rescued alive,” Mr. Wilkinson said. “This was a scary situation.” National Transportation Safety Board officials are investigating the cause of the crash.