ice. At their request, the Marines scouted ahead and discov- ered an opening in the cloud deck. “It reminded me of the Millennium Falcon, the way that KC-130 dove down through the hole in the clouds with the hoses out,” says Baur. “We dove in after and followed them through.” But below, the weather was treacherous. Te ceiling was
low, ragged, and overcast with poor visibility and rain. Tey encountered massive, 30 ft. sea swells, and the wind was a
“And that’s when we saw this guy, waving his arm like he’s hailing a cab in Manhattan, not in a debris field in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,” says Baur. “His name was Alexander Taranov. Tat was the first time we met. I would come to know him better.”
Taranov From the Pave Hawk’s right seat, Fleming controlled the hoist while Baur monitored the aircraft torque, engine RPM, sea state, and radios from the left seat. Suddenly, Fleming entered into a hover in the trough between the 30 ft. swells. “Te next thing I know, Doc was jumping out of the aircraft and swimming toward Taranov,” says Baur. While Fleming was focused on holding the hover, Baur
watched “a wave like in the opening credits of Hawaii Five-0 coming right at us.” Backing up Fleming, Baur verbalized the threat and pulled up sharply on the collective. Tey departed the hover, orbiting to a safe distance while observing the PJ and the survivor until Doc signaled for the hoist and watched as Doc helped Taranov into the hoist. Doc would then wait below to be hoisted by Davin. “Hey, there’s sharks in the water! Tey’re eating the
An HC-130 Combat Shadow refuels an
HH-60 Pave Hawk. Midair refueling requires precision
flying by both pilots, even in daylight and good weather conditions.
strong 50 kt. More bad news: Baur radioed the Aurora pilot already on scene but was told the crew had no knowledge of where the Ukrainians were waiting in their lifeboats. Drawing on his past Coast Guard experience, Baur rec- ommended working a parallel search. “We were observing a fuel slick and debris. My plan was to create a creeping line search on both sides of the debris and fly up the current.” Te Marines were willing to join and search with them until they went bingo fuel—meaning they’d reached their minimum fuel levels and had to return to base. Gradually, they noticed the debris field was changing.
Tey were seeing parts of a ship: wooden pallets, furniture, and paper. Te wind was strong, but the current was con- sistent; deep blue water from the Gulf Stream, snaked with tendrils of whitecaps and surf. Tis gave them a clear direction to search, but it was well past the turnaround time. By 12:30 pm, they’d already searched hundreds of miles beyond the extraction point. “We decided to continue searching, even if it meant dis-
obeying orders. We’d been told not to search and to turn around no later than 12:30 local, but we made an ethical choice to continue in order to save human lives,” says Baur. Just as they were getting light on fuel again, Rich Davin,
Baur’s flight engineer, called out. “Hey, there’s some debris over there waving at us!”
34 ROTOR MARCH 2021
Ukrainians,” radioed Krulder, the wingman’s flight engineer. “Tey’re treating them like a buffet line.” Baur cut Fleming’s radio, sparing him the details as he worked. Te Allende survivors had lashed themselves together using ropes or belts. As one shark came up for a strike, it would pull the others under. Ten a body part would bob to the surface. Tere wasn’t much left. With everyone safely back in the aircraft, Baur asked Davin
to put a headset on Taranov so he could talk to him. “I wanted to find out more about who was with him, how many sur- vivors there were, and if we were searching in the right area. Part of me didn’t want to tell Taranov about the sharks,” says Baur. “We would find out later, through a translator, that Taranov had had his own encounter and didn’t want to tell us about the sharks.” Another quick discussion ensued: Should they put Doc
back in the water to gather any remains? Absolutely not, they decided. It made no sense. Baur agreed and radioed one of the nearby searching ships, rolling and listing in the heavy seas. As the captain of that ship struggled to keep his vessel upright, members of his crew were casting over hooks and lines in an effort to gather the bobbing remains. “I thought that was probably the best solution,” says Baur. “I didn’t feel comfortable putting Doc in the water again.” Taranov, 36, had survived in the cold North Atlantic seas
for nearly two days wearing only a cloth coverall, two woolen sweaters, and an orange life jacket, sustaining himself with two cans of 7UP that had floated near enough to grab. His eyes were swollen shut from the sea and fuel. “He said he
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
