Helicopters rescue 3 Bochurim and teacher from Bear Mountain
STONY POINT, N.Y. (AP) -- A (SNS ED. Ocean parkway ULY Hamesivta) teacher and three 16-year-old yeshiva students wandered off a Bear Mountain climbing trail and had to be plucked from a 200-foot-high ledge by rappelling rescuers while hovering police helicopters lit the face of the cliff.
The climbers "felt they couldn't go up safely and they couldn't go down safely once they realized where they were," Lt. David Herrick of the New York state park police said Friday. "Basically they froze and didn't want to move."
They were stuck on the rocky outcropping for more than five hours on Thursday night and early Friday.
A tactical rope rescue unit, comprising specially trained members of various volunteer fire departments, rappelled the 400-foot cliff to the rocky ledge, put each of the four hikers into harnesses, then lowered them to the bottom, Herrick said.