A 35-year-old rescue worker, Ding Mingjie, from the Chiayi Air Force Sea Gull Rescue Squadron, went hiking alone in Hualien on the 30th but accidentally fell into a valley. After calling for help, Hualien’s search and rescue team searched overnight and found Ding at around 3 p.m. on the 31st in the Pingshih Mountain area—but he had already passed away. The cause of death is yet to be determined pending the body being brought down the mountain. Currently, Ding’s body has been transported to the Sanjia Camp hanging point, awaiting a helicopter hoist-down operation on February 1st, weather permitting.
The deputy chief of Hualien Fire Department’s First Battalion, Hsiao Chih-yuan, explained the full rescue situation. Ding Mingjie called 110 on January 30th, reporting that he was hiking alone, had fallen off an iron cable suspension bridge in Pingshih Mountain, Sushan Township, into a valley, injured both legs and was in pain, and requested rescue.
Hsiao Chih-yuan said that according to the location he described over the phone, it was from the marker point toward Dayuling, not yet reaching the pine woodland area—about several kilometers in between. Rescue personnel arrived at marker point 69 at around 2 a.m. on the 31st and began searching. In the morning, they reached the area near his mobile phone’s GPS coordinates and continued searching, but couldn’t find him. It wasn’t until the afternoon, using the “Find My iPhone” function to keep searching, that they finally located him midway between marker points 69-44—that is, on a new route in Pingshih Mountain—but regrettably, he had no signs of life.
(China Times)