Massachusetts State Police Air Wing locates missing man in freezing temperatures

The Massachusetts State Police Air Wing once again located a missing person and possibly saved their life. This time in freezing temperatures.

According to Dave Procopio of Massachusetts State Police, yesterday evening at approximately 6:30 p.m., police and firefighters learned that a man in his 70s had gone walking in the Granville State Forest near West Harland Road that afternoon. The man had not returned home and was long overdue. Granville Firefighters and members of the State Police K9 Unit, Special Emergency Response Team, and Air Wing responded to search for the man.

MSP Air Wing helicopter Air 4, crewed by Sgt. Kristopher Malm and Troopers Kenneth Dinjian and Brendan Crowther, arrived on station and began an aerial search of the heavily wooded area using the aircraft’s Forward Looking Infrared camera. The lost man had his cellphone with him and had intermittent service, and told police dispatchers he could see the helicopter. Trooper Dinjian instructed dispatchers to tell the man to turn on the flashlight on his phone and point it toward the helicopter. Within seconds, the flight crew was able to locate the man using their FLIR and an infrared laser.

The flight crew, communicating via separate radio frequencies to State Police assets on the ground and to Granville firefighters, directed first responders to the missing man. Ground units brought him out of the woods safely. The temperature at the time of the search was 26 degrees Fahrenheit and dropping, and night had fallen.

Without the efforts of the State Police Air Wing and the various MSP and Granville Fire ground units, the lost man may have suffered severe, or even fatal, consequences from the cold.