The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office lent some helicopter support to a dramatic rescue operation in Marin County Sunday evening, in which a man was stuck on a cliff.
The rescue took place around 7:40 pm Sunday, and the man had apparently fallen off a trail on the cliff's edge some time earlier. The location, in the area of Battery Alexander in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is near the Point Bonita Lighthouse, a couple of miles from the Marin Headlands.
"The subject was approximately 50-60 feet down from the trail and was clinging to the gravel rock face," the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office explained on Facebook.
As seen in the video below, the Sonoma County Sheriff's helicopter, Henry-1, spotted the man on the cliff first through the helicopter’s thermal imaging camera.
The helicopter landed nearby in order to prepare for a long-line rescue, and then the rescue operation involved a tactical flight officer being lowered down to the man and placing him into a rescue device.
The man was successfully rescued and delivered to Southern Marin Fire District personnel for medical evaluation.
No further information was shared about the man's condition, or the circumstances in which he ended up on the cliff.
A similarly precarious rescue took place in February on a cliff in Big Sur, after a man had accidentally driven off Highway 1 and landed 400 feet down, where he remained stranded for two days before being found.
Photo via Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
