Crime & Safety
WATCH: Mass. State Police Air Wing Helps Hikers Out of the Woods
The Air Wing was busy on Saturday, getting calls twice to look for lost hikers in Worcester County.
WORCESTER, MA — Several hikers on Saturday wandered a little too far off the trail and perhaps didn't have their GPS units working on their phones. The Massachusetts State Police Air Wing located these lost hikers in two separate rescue missions in Central Massachusetts.
At approximately 8 p.m. Sturbridge police, state police patrols and K-9 units, and K-9 units from the regional Central Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council began searching for three missing people — an adult and two teenagers — believed to have been on a trail off Stallion Hill Road. The three were lost somewhere in the trail network south of Old Sturbridge Village, said a release from the Massachusetts State Police.
A State Police Air Wing helicopter and flight crew assisted, and around 10:20 p.m., the MSP flight crew located the missing hikers and directed ground units to their location. The three hikers were transported to an area hospital to be evaluated.
Earlier on Saturday, at approximately 5 p.m. a 911 call came in from a hiker who said he was lost with his two children on the Mid-State Trail in Princeton. State Police patrols and K-9 units, as well as a State Police Air Wing helicopter and air crew, responded.
The MSP flight crew found the missing family around 6:30 p.m., directing state troopers on the ground to their location. Troopers escorted the man and his children out of the woods; all three were in good condition and did not require medical aid.
The State Police Air Wing flies several helicopters out of air bases at Westover, in Lawrence, and in Plymouth.
This video above shows the Princeton incident.
Photo: Screenshot via Massachusetts State Police
