Pilot who found Kati Kim and daughters finds lost mushroom hunters

The Associated Press

John Rachor, of Medford, stands in front of his helicopter. Rachor helped locate three missing mushroom hunters.

It was clear and calm Saturday morning as John Rachor, a veteran of more than a dozen search and rescue missions in Southern Oregon, flew over a small patch of Curry County looking for three mushroom pickers who disappeared last week. 

Rachor alternated his gaze between the instrument panel of his Robinson R44 and the ground to look for anything out of place in the carpet of browns and greens below. 

And that’s when he saw it: something was moving in the thick woods. Was it a deer or an elk?

Rachor took a closer look. 

“It was a man in bib overalls,” he said. 

The man stood in a clearing no bigger than the size of a car or two. He was waving both hands. A woman was standing next to him. 

Rachor had found Daniel and Belinda Conne, and their 25-year-old son Michael. The family became lost last week, and spent six days in the Curry County wilderness. The family was located about 10 miles from Gold Beach. They were tired, hungry, cold but escaped serious injury.

Rachor, 63, who lives in Medford and is a Jackson County commissioner, knows something about search and rescue missions. He's the same pilot who found Kati Kim and her two young daughters in 2006. The Kim family was missing in the Oregon wilderness for nine days and were the subject of an intense search and rescue effort that gripped the nation. Kati’s husband, James, died of exposure and hypothermia after a 16-mile hike in ice and snow to get help for his family, 

He said he often gets questions or hears criticism about the people he’s searching for: why don’t they carry maps or compasses or equip themselves with global positioning devices? 

“The people who get lost don’t think that way," he said. "They don’t plan like that. That’s why the end of up getting lost.” 

Since he found Kati Kim and her daughters, Rachor figures he’s taken part in about 15 search and rescue missions. He deflected questions about those successful searches for snowmobilers and hikers, saying ground searchers deserve as much credit as he does for finding people who get lost in the wilderness.

Rachor said he was sitting down to dinner Saturday night when those searchers were still making their way out of the woods. 

“I just want to commend them,” he said. “A lot of them were out there for days at a time. I saw them coming in covered with mud. This is tough country. Flying is the easy part.” 

Rachor volunteers his time to help search and rescue missions but the state reimburses him for fuel, which in this latest search cost about $420.

Since he joined the Jackson County Board of Commissioners last year, Rachor isn’t supposed to take part in search and rescue operations in that county. It’s seen as a conflict of interest since he oversees the budget for those efforts. He doesn’t get too worried when he hears of overdue hunters – they’re likely to have what they need to survive in the woods – but he said he’s made it clear that he won’t sit by if a search in his county takes a dire turn. 

“If there is a 4-year-old boy (who’s lost), all bets are off and I am going anyway,” he said. “When you have something like this, when people’s lives are at stake, I will always go.”

Source:  http://www.oregonlive.com