A CBP helicopter hiker rescue that captured regional consideration concerned consecutive missions by U.S. Customs and Border Safety Air and Marine Operations crews within the Franklin Mountains close to El Paso and the Organ Mountains close to Las Cruces. In keeping with CBP’s El Paso Air Department, the staff carried out a hoist extraction for a dehydrated hiker in Texas, then diverted to New Mexico for a second medical emergency involving chest ache and numb fingers.
What occurred on August 9
CBP stories that on August 9, 2025, the El Paso Air Department obtained a request from El Paso County Search and Rescue for a helicopter hoist within the Franklin Mountains. A hoist licensed UH-60 Black Hawk launched with a rescue specialist round 3 p.m. The crew hovered roughly 50 ft over the positioning whereas the specialist was lowered to help a severely dehydrated hiker and two floor rescuers. All 4 had been then hoisted into the plane and transported to a close-by roadway for ambulance switch.
Whereas coming back from the primary mission, the identical UH-60 was retasked by New Mexico State Police for a second incident within the Organ Mountains close to Las Cruces. The Black Hawk picked up an Emergency Medical Technician from an area fireplace division to offer in flight care, looked for about half-hour, then situated the affected person at 4:43 p.m. in a mountain valley at roughly 8,300 ft. The rescue specialist carried out a hoist of about 130 ft and the helicopter moved the affected person to an ambulance staging level.
BACK-TO-BACK SAR EXCLUSIVE: Watch as El Paso Air Department UH-60 crew rescues a dehydrated hiker within the Franklin Mountains Saturday. The crew hoisted the hiker and transported him to a close-by highway the place an ambulance was ready to move for additional care. #SavingLives #AMO #UH60 pic.twitter.com/BB7w83dN5t
— CBP AMO (@CBPAMO) August 12, 2025
Evening rescue a couple of days later
Lower than two weeks after the consecutive missions, CBP documented one other hoist in the identical mountain vary throughout nighttime situations. On the night of August 21, 2025, the UH-60 crew used night time imaginative and prescient goggles to find an injured hiker within the Franklin Mountains. The crew established a 180 foot hover and carried out six hoist iterations to extract the affected person and a number of members of the Mixed Search and Rescue staff.
Plane, crews, and hoist functionality
Aerial view of the Franklin Rescue | Picture: CBP
The El Paso Air Department routinely deploys the UH-60 Black Hawk for mountain extractions that require a powered hoist. The official account of the August 9 operations notes a 50 foot reducing within the Franklin Mountains and a 130 foot hoist within the Organ Mountains. Crews additionally built-in an EMT for affected person care in the course of the second mission. In a separate West Texas incident earlier within the yr, CBP highlighted how Air and Marine Operations groups work with Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue personnel to achieve hikers in rugged terrain.
Interagency teamwork
All three current extractions underscore how aviation property mesh with native rescuers. The August 9 Franklin Mountains mission began with a request from El Paso County Search and Rescue. The diversion to New Mexico occurred after a New Mexico State Police request, and the crew picked up an EMT from an area fireplace division to trip alongside.
Why the geography issues
Aerial view of the Organ Rescue | Picture: CBP
Topography and elevation complicate rescues on either side of the state line. The Organ Mountains rise abruptly above the Chihuahuan Desert and have slim canyons and rocky spires that attain about 9 thousand ft. Complicated terrain limits floor entry and makes helicopter hoist work the quickest method to transfer sufferers from slopes or attracts to established medical staging areas.
Security classes for desert mountain mountaineering
These extractions are a reminder that summer time warmth, steep grades, and lengthy approaches mix to extend threat. The Nationwide Park Service advises hikers to plan for prime temperatures, carry and drink ample water, and use solar safety clothes and sunscreen. These tips, although written for desert parks, are immediately related to the Franklin and Organ ranges.
Franklin Mountains in El Paso, TX
These rescues present how rapidly mountain emergencies can escalate and the way invaluable skilled hoist crews are for affected person entry and speedy transport. The area will proceed to profit from shut coordination amongst CBP aircrews, county search and rescue groups, and state authorities. The CBP helicopter hiker rescue mannequin described right here illustrates a repeatable strategy that saves valuable minutes when terrain and warmth complicate floor response.
Journey Ready: Security Necessities for Southwest Hikes
For anybody planning a hike on this a part of the Southwest, examine the route, pack water and electrolytes, shield in opposition to solar publicity, and set clear examine in plans. With these fundamentals in place, you scale back the possibility of needing assist whereas nonetheless figuring out easy methods to name for it if the surprising occurs. The current missions additionally clarify that skilled aviation groups can and do reply when wanted.
That ongoing readiness is why the CBP helicopter hiker rescue stays an important functionality for communities on either side of the state line.
