07/16/2024 05:02PM
DNR to honor pilot who rescued Curtain Falls survivors
Grace Zeller, based in Brainerd, flew twice to the Boundary Waters accident scene at midnight to evacuate the injured canoeists.
John Myers
By John Myers
Today at 4:28 PM
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News reporting
BRAINERD, Minn. — For 17 days during a gut-wrenching, gut-busting search-and-recovery mission, much of the attention on the Curtain Falls accident in May was focused on the effort to find and recover the bodies of two canoeists.
The search in roiling waters along the Minnesota-Ontario border deep in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness took dozens of search-and-rescue experts, underwater drones and cameras, aircraft searching with infrared cameras, cadaver dogs, divers, boats, canoes, support staff and more. It captivated the state into June.
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But before that search-and-recovery effort even started, Grace Zeller had already flown her Minnesota Department of Natural Resources MD-500 Little Bird helicopter into the accident scene twice, at midnight, to evacuate two injured canoeists from the same group who washed over the same falls and survived.
Her story hasn’t been widely told before. But for her efforts above and beyond the call of duty, and which may have placed her in harm's way in the effort to save others, Zeller will receive the Minnesota DNR Division of Enforcement Lifesaving Award at an event later this month.
Curtain Falls recover effort
A member of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad, tethered by rope to shore, inspects boulders in Curtain Falls during a recovery effort earlier this summer. Contributed / St. Louis County Rescue Squad
Small DNR choppers not made for rescues
Zeller, 35, a natural resources pilot for the DNR’s enforcement aviation division, is based in Brainerd and usually earns her paycheck by flying the helicopter to conduct aerial wildlife surveys; stock fish in remote lakes; shuttle biologists into remote areas to conduct research; and sometimes to locate and fight wildfires if needed.
“It’s a small helicopter, four people, and we really don’t do rescues because we’re not set up for it. There’s no hoist (to lift people into the aircraft) for one thing,” Zeller noted. “We do search, not usually rescue.”
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But on the night of May 18, Zeller received a call on her day off from her boss, DNR enforcement aviation leader Jake Willis, to see if she was able and willing to fly. Information was still sketchy, but it was clear something bad had happened in a remote part of the BWCAW, and there were no other aircraft available in the region capable of getting to and landing at that location.
“I told her she didn’t have to do it if it looked wrong, but she didn’t hesitate a second,” Willis recalled. “I said that if at any time she felt uncomfortable trying to get into that spot to turn around and bring it home. We could at least say we tried.”
Grace Zeller, Minnesota DNR pilot
Grace Zeller, a Minnesota DNR helicopter pilot based in Brainerd, will be awarded the agency's "Livesaver" honor for her efforts May 18 flying two injured canoeists out of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the dark.Contributed / Minnesota DNR
Zeller rushed to the Brainerd airport, readied her chopper and zoomed to the Ely airport at about 130 mph. There, she picked up two veteran helicopter trauma medics and a third person experienced in helicopter rescues.
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“The North Memorial (air ambulance) helicopter was already in Ely with their crew, but they couldn't get into the accident," she recalled in an interview with the News Tribune. "It was just too big of a helicopter, and it’s on wheels, and their policy is not to go into that situation at night. So their (medical) crew flew in with me.”
Other possible rescue aircraft, including the U.S. Forest Service’s famous Beaver float planes usually stationed in Ely, were unavailable.
“Really, Gracie was all there was anywhere in the region who could get in there,” Willis said. “I wasn’t sure it was going to come together in time.”
Landing on a rock in the dark
Rescue crews were already on the way into the accident scene by water, but it would be well into the next day before they arrived. It took Zeller’s helicopter only 15 minutes to get from the Ely airport to Curtain Falls.
Curtain Falls in the BWCAW
Gary Meader / Duluth Media Group
“It was already dark-dark by then. There was a little finger moon shining on the water. One of the guys I had on board had night vision goggles so that helped find a landing zone,” Zeller said.
Her first chosen landing spot was on a small rock island away from the island where the victims were waiting. But an even better spot was found closer to the victims and Zeller eventually landed the helicopter on a bald rock outcrop on the same small island where the injured canoeists were located. The Little Bird is equipped with fixed skids to land on.
“I could see it was safe," Zeller said. "It was a flat rock, no vegetation, the trees were far enough away. It was safe with the tail rotor out over the river, so I put it down. It was firm enough where I could even idle it down. I wasn’t half-hovering like I was at the first spot."
Rescuers had been called to the scene by two other paddlers who had summoned help by satellite telephone.
“I never found out who they were, their names. They just said they were concerned citizens,” Zeller said.
The injured canoeists, Kyle Sellers, 47, and Erik Grams, 43, both of Ham Lake, Minnesota, “were lucky those other guys were there," she said.
The good Samaritans had a bonfire going to help Zeller locate the spot.
The Little Bird has no space for a stretcher, so the original plan was to drop off the medics who would stay with the victims and render first aid until daylight when a larger float plane could be called in to bring them out. But that changed to an evacuation once Zeller’s helicopter arrived on the scene and the victims were found able to walk and sit upright.
Medics brought the first victim, Kyle Sellers, to Zeller’s helicopter and, with the two North Memorial medics also on board, Zeller flew them out.
St. Louis County Rescue Squad two trucks in snow
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Since 1958, the all-volunteer squad has been finding and saving people, winter and summer, from the Boundary Waters to Brookston and beyond.
“He said he didn’t feel that bad, but it turned out that was probably the shock," she said. "He had quite a few lacerations, and he ended up having a fractured pelvis, I think. And he was hypothermic. The medical staff on board really knew their stuff. They were keeping him calm. It was fairly windy that night and it was a pretty bumpy ride and, when I found out he had injuries, I’m thinking, man he must have been hurting.”
She dropped her passengers off at the Ely airport and the North Memorial helicopter flew Sellers to Duluth for treatment.
Back in for the second victim
Meanwhile, Zeller topped off her fuel and then flew back to Curtain Falls to pick up the second victim, Erik Grams. (A fifth member of the canoe party, Jared Lohse, 33, of Cambridge, Minnesota, did not require any assistance.)
Chinook helicopter at Curtain Falls
An Air National Guard Chinook helicopter is loaded with an inflatable boat, gear and crew members from the St. Louis County rescue Squad after an 18-day effort to recover the bodies of two missing canoeists at Curtain Falls.Contributed / St. Louis County Rescue Squad
“He (Erik Grams) was in a little better shape than the first guy. But he was also hypothermic and ended up having some injury issues as well, so they took him to the Ely hospital,” Zeller said.
The canoeists, all experienced and all familiar with the area, had been fishing above the falls, where Crooked Lake tumbles down 30 feet into Iron Lake, before the accident occurred around 4 p.m. Amid the rain-swollen river, the paddlers got too close and were unable to fight the power of the water, capsized and were pulled underwater.
While Erik Grams and Kyle Sellers were lucky to have survived their near-downing, and while both ended up recovering completely, they are still marked by the loss of their two canoeing partners — a friend and a brother — who did not survive.
The St. Louis County Rescue Squad, with help from numerous agencies, including a Chinook helicopter from the Air National Guard, eventually found the body of missing canoeist Jesse Haugen, 41, of Cambridge, Minnesota, on May 31. The second victim, Reis Grams, 40, of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, was found June 3. It took a combined 6,000 hours of work by the all-volunteer squad.
Erik Grams told Minnesota Public Radio that the survivors are now working to move on with their lives. That includes going back to the Boundary Waters, where they plan to return to Curtain Falls next year on the anniversary of his brother’s death.
“This isn’t going to stop the love and passion for nature and the outdoors,” Grams told MPR. “That’s the way that Reis and Jesse would want it.”
From the mountains to Minnesota
For her part, Zeller said the into-the-dark rescue in the rugged, remote stretch of northern Minnesota “was definitely the most rewarding flight I've ever done.”
Zeller, who grew up in Cody, Wyoming, just outside Yellowstone National Park, cut her helicopter teeth flying in Oregon, California, and giving tourists rides over the Grand Canyon. She came to Minnesota in January 2022 to take the DNR job that offered fun flying opportunities with a natural resource focus, two of her passions.
She’s been a pilot for a decade and has more than 1,000 hours flying turbine helicopters like the Little Bird.
“I knew Minnesota was going to be flatter,” Zeller said with a laugh. “But it still has a lot of outdoor opportunities. It’s been a great job so far.”
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