Editorials - 09/14/00

Community searched, hoped for rescue

Within an hour, our county's volunteer emergency personnel - rescue squad members and firefighters - were on the scene, like they are during every emergency, ready to help. Throughout the day Thursday (Sept. 7), through the fog, they hiked the steep mountains looking for any sign of the helicopter or its occupants, Tim Newman and Mike Fossett. They searched, and they hoped.

Newman and Fossett were flying to Haywood County to do good - to teach children about the outdoors and the environment and to convey to the youngsters how important and valuable our mountains are.

As we grieve for the two men we didn't know, we can take some measure of comfort in the fact that we live in a community where so many are so willing to volunteer, heedless of potential risk or inconvenience, to lend a hand whenever and wherever it's needed.

We don't have space for the names of the more than 200 people from our county who answered the signal, but we can call the roll and say thank you to the groups from our county who put aside their personal business to join the search: Firefighters from Balsam, Cullowhee, Savannah, Canada and Qualla were on the scene, while those in Sylva provided back up for all units; members of both the Glenville-Cashiers and Jackson County Rescue Squads; and trained law enforcement personnel from the Jackson County Sheriff's Department and the N.C. Highway Patrol.

Unfortunately, their efforts couldn't save Newman and Fossett, who were killed instantly when their aircraft crashed. We can't bring them back, but we can be glad that we honored them enough to care about their fate. Everyone in Sylva and the surrounding communities was gripped by last week's drama, and all were united in the hope that the pilot and crew chief would be found alive.

We rarely do or say enough to express our appreciation to people like Newman and Fossett - the dedicated public servants who go about their business of protecting our natural resources for all of us to enjoy; likewise, we don't tell our volunteers how much they mean to us, and how grateful we are that they are always there to help.

Sad things like this aren't supposed to happen here in our mountain refuge. We like to pretend that the hills that isolated us for so long can somehow insulate us from the sadness and tragedy that's becoming all too common in most other places.

We like to think we're in something of a time warp here in the mountains - that we can hide in our safe cocoon where tragedies aren't supposed to happen.

Only sometimes they do. We don't always get the happy endings Tim Newman and Mike Fossett deserved.

We wish we did.

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