His jaw had shattered against the back of the front seat. Neither man can remember getting out of the destroyed Cub that moments before had been Chris's pride and joy. Through pain and confusion, they dug into the winter gear stuffed into the rear compartment of the Cub. We're photographing the Iditarod race. Even in their state of shock, they managed to assemble a winter camp of sorts.
Strange things happen in the land of the midnight sun.
Were it not for Maggie Olson's birthday party, Chris and Jeff might never have survived their ordeal on the ice. Wade Charles, another Iditarod Air Force pilot, told me how this part of the drama then unfolded. Wade says a Bering Air pilot flying out of Nome was the first to zero in on the emergency locator transmitter that automatically activated when the plane crashed. However, it was Jeff's hand-held VHF radio that really saved their butts. The emergency locator transmitter gave the system their approximate location.