“The Importance of Private Mountain Search Teams for Finding Lost Hikers”

The reason why there are many reports of “family members not returning” late at night

Saturday, June 15, 2019 at 4:00 am. The phone rang.

It was from Hajime Kuga, president of Authentic Japan Co., Ltd., which provides a search helicopter service for members only.

When you register with Kokoheri, you will be given a small key chain membership card. This is a transmitter, and when a distress call is received from the person or family, a search party with a dedicated receiver will search from the sky with a helicopter and identify the location of the victim.

According to President Kuga, a coco helicopter member’s family reported to us last night that helicopters could not fly due to bad weather in the Ashio area of ​​Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture. It was a request to ask if we could carry out a search from the ground with a receiver. It rained that day. The mountains are foggy and visibility is poor. Of course, you can’t fly a helicopter.

The family who went mountain climbing did not return. The family usually feels the change on the night of the day they are due to return home. I’m not coming home, I can’t answer the phone. Worried about their safety, it is often late at night that they call the police or Kokoheli. In the case of Kokoheli, this is where the confirmation of the climber’s climbing plan and the arrangement of the helicopter begin. Therefore, it is not uncommon for me to be contacted before dawn to cooperate in the search.

If it is one day after the disaster, the probability of survival is high

We had another search operation scheduled for that weekend, but it was also canceled due to rain. The search was a case in which days had passed since the disaster.

In the case of rain, it is often canceled because effective searches cannot be conducted in poor visibility. Another reason for canceling the search is to pay attention to the safety of the search team, such as rising river water levels. However, the distress reported on this day is an emergency case that occurred the day before. Survival is also likely. You may be injured and unable to move, and you may be waiting for help at this very moment. let’s do what we can

ground troops carry antennas that can receive over a wide area,ridgelineRyosenIf you go up to the top, you may be able to catch the radio waves of the transmitter.

With that in mind, I immediately contacted Mr. Koji Yamazaki, a member of the team.

Mr. Yamazaki, who was originally scheduled to start the search that day, was a mountain guide and a helicopter search operator on a regular basis.

Mr. Yamazaki, who is accustomed to searching and handling machinery, should be able to pinpoint the location of victims if he holds up a receiver from a ridgeline where his field of vision is open. Mr. Yamazaki is also familiar with the mountains of the Ashio area.

From the afternoon of that day, I stayed at my home in Tokyo to communicate with President Kuga and others, while Mr. Yamazaki and another person entered the site as a ground search party.