Sling Fails--Horse Tumbles to Death

An injured horse, which was being lifted by helicopter out of the ravine where it had been trapped for a week, tumbled to its death Friday when the harness broke.

The mare’s owners, Joseph Wheatley, 64, of Garden Grove and his sons, David and Mike, had spent the last week trying to find ways to rescue her. The horse, named Scotch, had fallen into the ravine after a misstep on a narrow mountain trail.

“Everybody said no, there’s no way to get her out,” Mike Wheatley said before Friday’s rescue attempt. “There’s no way she’ll live, just put her down, they all said. But we’re horse people, and we’re not going to let her die if she don’t have to.”

Then the U.S. Marines at Tustin offered to send a chopper. On Friday, the helicopter with a harness carefully maneuvered into the small area.

Wheatley family members and friends cheered from the top of the ravine as two Marines, a veterinarian, David Wheatley and rancher Kent Nelson buckled a drugged and dazed Scotch into the harness. Forty feet above, the CH-46 Sea Knight chopper hovered, with the mountainside less than 10 feet from its front rotor.

After about two harrowing minutes, the horse was strapped in, and the chopper flew away. But en route to the landing area about 10 miles away, the harness apparently broke and the horse fell. A television crew saw the fall from a nearby helicopter.

Scotch had been brought to the area by David Wheatley and his father to help in the search for a lost 12-year-old Boy Scout.

The horse was badly bruised and cut when David Wheatley returned the next morning.

His father contacted local law enforcement agencies, politicians and, finally, the military in search of help.