The Massachusetts State Police Air Wing last night located a hunter who had gone missing in a forest in Savoy.
A state police helicopter crew found the hunter, a 62-year-old Savoy man, at 10:50 p.m. in a wooded area by using the aircraft's forward-looking infrared camera. The hunter was located about one-third of a mile from the point where he had entered the woods almost nine hours earlier.
The helicopter crew directed state police ground units to the hunter's location. Troopers on the ground and local firefighters determined that he had suffered potentially serious injuries but was conscious and appeared to be in stable condition. The helicopter crew illuminated the scene using a high-powered searchlight mounted under the nose of the aircraft while rescue personnel removed the hunter to an ambulance for transport to an area hospital.
State Police had begun searching for the hunter at 5:50 p.m., when his wife called the barracks in Cheshire to report him missing. She told troopers he had entered the woods at about 2 p.m. wearing fluorescent orange clothing and was usually home by dark. Troopers and state police dogs began a ground search. At approximately 10 p.m., the Air Wing unit was dispatched from its base in Westover and located the hunter less than an hour later.
State police are not releasing the hunter's name or the nature of his injuries at this time.
