Spokane County helicopter crew rescues injured motorcyclist near Cusick

A volunteer helicopter crew from Spokane County rescued an injured motorcyclist in Pend Oreille County on Saturday.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said it received a request for assistance at about 5:30 p.m. after a man crashed his dirt bike on a mountainside in the Batey-Bould Off-Road Vehicle Area northwest of Cusick, suffering leg and back injuries.

About an hour later, the sheriff’s office deployed one of its three helicopters – a Bell UH-1H Super Huey that the department acquired around the beginning of the year through a federal government surplus program.

The helicopter is used by the Spokane Regional Air Support Unit, which includes personnel from the sheriff’s office, the Spokane and Spokane Valley fire departments, and other local agencies.

For this mission, the crew included pilots Dave Valenti and Jack Scanlon, Spokane Valley firefighters Cody Weidauer and Bob Nixon, and Deputy Chris Bylow, the crew chief.

A ground crew had reached the motorcyclist by the time the helicopter arrived shortly before 7 p.m. The sheriff’s office said Weidauer descended from the chopper on a cable and placed the man in a rescue harness so he could be hoisted into the aircraft.

The sheriff’s office said the man was flown to a nearby landing area and transferred into the care of paramedics and Pend Oreille County firefighters.