Reader\'s Digest Canada - 10.2019

and by 6:30 p.m., he’d assembled per-

sonnel from within an hour’s radius in

every direction. But McDonnell’s last

location was in an area far too rugged

to attempt a full ground search, espe-

cially under a moonless sky.

So the sheriff sent his deputies out

to the highways and back roads, hop-

ing McDonnell might have found his

way to a thoroughfare. Around 9 p.m.,

a helicopter from the Fairfax County

Police Department arrived.

IT WAS ABOUT 9:45 p.m. when McDon-

nell heard the whoop-whoop-whoop of

a helicopter and looked up from the

makeshift bed he’d fashioned out of

sticks as a barrier between his body and

the cold ground hours before. He’d

never minded bedding down in dirt,

and made a sleeping mat from branches

(a trick he learned in the Army).

Now, as the light from the chopper

danced closer, McDonnell struggled

to rouse his achy joints and get to his

feet. He managed to lift his orange

hunter’s hat to the sky and wave. “I’m

here!” he yelled.

The chopper hovered directly above

him, but the mix of tall trees and low

laurel canopies were too dense for its

searchlight to penetrate. The light

dimmed and the whir of the helicopter

blades softened. McDonnell guessed

they wouldn’t be back until morning.

McDonnell hated the fact that search

crews were wasting resources and los-

ing sleep because he’d taken one too

many shortcuts. Most of all, he worried

about Joanna—she was probably terri-

fied. He wanted to get up and power

through the darkness, but he knew he’d

only end up in more trouble.

Shortly after midnight, Captain

Dellinger’s phone rang. It was the

Loudoun County Sheriff ’s Office, offer-

ing its search-and-rescue drone. The

following morning, as the dawn illumi-

nated a silhouette of the mountains,

teams of rescuers with bloodhounds

started on the trail McDonnell had

hiked. At the same time, Loudoun

County Master Deputy Matthew Dev-

aney and his co-pilot, Jamie Holben,

set up a launch area for the drone, then

waited for the signal to send it out.

This was the first time they’d flown

the drone in a real rescue situation.

The device has a nearly five-kilometre

line of sight and a high-definition

camera so powerful, Devaney says,

AS LIGHT FROM THE CHOPPER DANCED

CLOSER, McDONNELL STRUGGLED TO PULL

HIMSELF TO HIS FEET.

reader’s digest

56 october 2019