DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — Pilots flying over trails in Douglas County late at night over the weekend reported what appeared to be hikers signaling for help, but so far, search and rescue crews have found “no indication on the ground of someone in distress.”
Early Friday morning, Douglas County Search and Rescue crews were activated after “multiple airplanes reported what appeared to be SOS signaling from a light on the ground” in the Indian Creek and Colorado Trail area, the agency said in a Facebook post Friday morning.
Several ground crews as well as a drone covered “a breadth of trails” until the early hours of Friday, but said they found no signs of anyone in distress.
By Sunday morning, Douglas County officials said they had a busy and long night, in which “much of the team” responded once again to “what appeared to (be) pilots flying overhead across the Rampart / Colorado Trail area to be a hiker signaling SOS with a flashlight.”
Crews deployed an ATV in addition to foot crews and a done and searched the exact area given by the pilots “with no findings, until the wee hours of this morning,” according to another social media post.
“We’ve been called out two of the last three nights for overnight searchers for this,” the agency said in their latest Facebook post. “Please note, if you happen to be in that area and are signaling aircraft with an SOS recreationally, it’s taken seriously and results in rescuers being called out to comb a broad area of pretty challenging terrain - so please only signal aircraft if it’s truly an emergency.”
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