As they lowered rescue swimmer Craig Powers 120 feet to pluck injured hiker Keith Hutchins off a Mount Ripinsky cliffside, U.S. Coast Guard crewmen lost visibility out their port and forward windows, then, several times, lost sight of Hutchins and Powers below.
“As we started the hoist, we were in a cloud,” pilot Andy Schanno said in an interview this week.
But out the starboard side of their craft, they could make out the mountain…
