Search for a Missing Skydiver
Sunday, October 3, 2010 at 21:10 Jeff Lehman This was a new one for me. I have been on countless searches in my years in SAR, but I have never searched for somebody who may have fallen from the sky. Vladimir Frolov, a visitor from Russia, was reported missing by the Perris Skydiving Center when his car was discovered in the parking lot at closing time. Nobody has seen him since he registered for a solo jump on Saturday, September 25. A mutual aid request was made by Riverside County to assist in the search of a nearby field. Members of the Cave and Technical Rescue Team, Rim SAR, SB Mountain SAR, and West Valley SAR participated in the search accompanied by Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, Riverside Desert SAR, San Diego Mountain Rescue Team, and a number of Riverside County mounted folks.
Normally if we encounter heavy brush on a search we look for signs that somebody had entered the thicket. The tell-tale footprint, or broken limbs are indicators of such activity. What happens when the person enters the thicket from the sky? There is no peripheral evidence in such cases, and every thicket must be searched regardless of what things look like from the outside. Tracking? Forget it. None of the usual tools apply in such cases. Once a likely area is determined, about the only thing that works is a grid search. In the heavy brush, the searchers need to be at arms length to get any reasonable POD. As you know, this is painstaking work.
The search managers assigned us to teams of 4 or so, but we actually searched as part of a large team made up of 3 or 4 of these 4-person teams. I thought this was an efficient way to do such things. That way, if you needed to send a group of searchers to another area, or give them a different task, you already had the sub-groups determined. I'll keep that in mind for the next time. Below is my track for the day. It is amazing how little foliage is shown from the aerial image.
Riverside County press release on the missing skydiver, Vladimir Frolov
Jeff Lehman
Farmer finds human remains southeast of Perris Valley Airport. Authorities suspect that this is the missing skydiver, Vladimir Forlov.
Read the Press-Enterprise article.
Below is the approximate area as described in the Press-Enterprise article.
View Frolov in a larger map
Reader Comments (1)
On behalf of the St. Petersburg jumping community I would like to thank all the Rescue Teams participating in the in the search of Vladimir. We appreciate all these efforts you put and time you spent to find our friend. We understand that only insistent professionals could organize such an effective rescue operation. Unfortunately not all the efforts lead to the success. We still believe in good scenario… Many thanks.