How a DNR copter pilot pulled off a risky nighttime rescue in the Boundary Waters

Grace Zeller’s cell phone rang in her Brainerd home at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, and she could see on the caller ID that her boss Jake Willis was ringing her up.

Zeller, 35, is a helicopter pilot with the Department of Natural Resources Enforcement Division. She knew Willis wouldn’t phone on a weekend just to chat.

“What’s up, Jake?” she said, picking up the phone.

Willis, chief pilot of the division, oversees seven pilots. Typically their assignments include moose surveys, invasive plant eradication and other conservation work, as well as assisting conservation officers.

Occasionally, they also fly the search part of search-and-rescue missions. But usually they leave the rescuing to Minnesota State Patrol pilots and their specialized aircraft.

This night would be different.

“I was at my deer hunting shack doing some work when I got a call from St. Louis County about canoeists who had gone over a falls in the Boundary Waters,” Willis recalled. “It was too late to send a floatplane in there to do a rescue — floatplanes can’t land on water after dark — and no other helicopters were available, not State Patrol, not Forest Service and not Coast Guard. So I called Grace to see if she was available, stressing that if the she wasn’t comfortable with the mission, I’d support her however she handled it.”

Though fairly young, Zeller — the only full-time woman helicopter pilot the DNR employs — has logged a lot of flight time.

As a kid growing up in Wyoming, she always wanted to fly and was particularly enamored with helicopters. She earned her pilot’s license and a college degree in Oregon, flew helicopters commercially in that state and in California, and also ferried gawking tourists over and into the Grand Canyon.

“After the first couple of weeks, the Grand Canyon flying was like taxi driving,” she said.

In January 2022, the DNR hired her.

“I was told the Boundary Waters incident was at Curtain Falls,” Zeller said. “I quickly looked it up on Google Earth, and the question I had was, ‘Where would I land?’ I also didn’t know the extent of the canoeists’ injuries, and at that point I figured the best I might be able to do is drop off a medic to stabilize any injured people until the next morning.”

Thirty-five minutes passed between the time Zeller hung up her phone, pulled on her flight suit, drove to the Brainerd airport, and, with the help of another DNR pilot, completed her preflight check and lifted into the now-dark night.

Also known as “Little Bird,” the MD500 helicopter Zeller was flying is a relatively small four-seater that has a shorter main rotor radius than larger DNR helicopters. This would be important if she had to land in a heavily wooded portion of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

“A North Memorial air ambulance was at the Ely airport when I landed,” Zeller said. “But their aircraft wasn’t suited for landing in the Boundary Waters. So I loaded up three medics, two from North Memorial and one from the Iron Range, along with their gear, and headed for Curtain Falls.”

Already, a State Patrol airplane was circling above Curtain Falls, and its pilot was using the aircraft’s infrared camera to pinpoint the island below the falls where four canoeists — two injured after going over the falls, along with two good Samaritan paddlers who had happened upon them — were located.

It was the good Samaritans who earlier that evening had alerted St. Louis County sheriff’s authorities about the accident, using a cell phone and a handheld satellite communication device.

Two other canoeists who had also gone over the falls in the accident were missing, and as the State Patrol pilot canvassed the area, attempting to locate them with his heat-seeking camera, he radioed the island’s GPS coordinates to Zeller.

Both pilots, and the canoeists on the island, caught a break with the weather. The moon was about three-quarters full in a largely cloudless sky, rendering the night’s visibility about as good as it could be.

This was important, because although Zeller is an instrument-rated pilot, her helicopter was not outfitted with the navigation equipment necessary to fly “blind” through low clouds, thick fog and storms. So Zeller flew by sight to Curtain Falls, a distance of about 15 air miles from Ely.

En route, she caught a second break.

“One of the medics had a pair of night-vision goggles, and he was also familiar with helicopters, and both were helpful as we flew toward the falls,” Zeller aid. “The people on the island had started a fire, probably to keep warm but also to guide us, and with the night-vision goggles, the medic could see the fire from far away.”

As Zeller approached the island, she lost radio contact with the State Patrol pilot. Gone with the broken connection were recommendations the pilot might have had about where she could attempt to land.

“The medic using the night-vision goggles located a rock a short distance from the island and that’s where I landed first,” Zeller said. “The rock was small, and I could get both skids down, but I couldn’t fully settle the helicopter.”

As the medics exited the aircraft and waded through the water to the island, Zeller held the aircraft’s cyclic, or control stick, in her right hand, making minute adjustments to keep the skids on the rock. In her left hand she held the collective, which was mostly set in half hover. Her feet, meanwhile, kept the anti-torque pedals balanced, adjusting them only when the wind gusted and the collective changed.

“Most important in tight LZs [landing zones] like that is not to make any quick movements,” she said. “To stay relaxed.”

Assessing the situation on the island, the medics determined one canoeist had what appeared to be a broken leg and also was borderline hypothermic. The second canoeist also had a leg injury — it would be learned later he had fractured his pelvis.

Neither paddler, the medics believed, would be able to cross the water that separated the island from the helicopter.

“I was on the west side of the island, and the medics told me there was what looked like a better rock for landing on the east side,” Zeller said. “So I lifted off, hovered around the island and found a smooth rock that was sloped a little bit toward the water. I was able to land there and idle the helicopter, keeping both the main and rear rotors turning.”

By now, midnight had come and gone, and while Zeller waited in the helicopter, the medics devised a plan. The canoeist with the leg injury who was shivering and possibly going into shock would fly back to Ely first with two of the medics, while the Iron Range medic remained on the island with the other injured canoeist.

“The medics got the first guy into a seat, and I imagine it was painful, having to sit up with a broken leg,” Zeller said. “Then the medics climbed in, and we took off.”

In Ely, the injured paddler was strapped into a gurney and flown by the North Memorial crew to a Duluth hospital.

Soon Zeller took off again, this time flying alone back to Curtain Falls. Approaching the island without the help of the medic’s night-vision goggles, she lit up the smooth rock with her landing lights, set the helicopter down and waited while the second injured canoeist and the remaining medic clambered aboard.

“Buckled in?” she said when the doors were shut.

“Yes,” came one answer.

And, ”Yes.”

Then she lifted off.

Epilogue:

The accident occurred when the four canoeists in two canoes were fishing above the falls. One canoe capsized, sweeping that canoe and one paddler over the falls. When the paddlers in the second canoe attempted to rescue the capsized paddler, that canoe and all three canoeists went over the falls.

Kyle Sellers, 47, of Ham Lake, was one of the two canoeists who survived. He was evacuated first by Zeller.

Erik Grams, 43, of Ham Lake, also survived. He was flown out second.

A third paddler, Reis Grams, 40, of Lino Lakes, brother of Erik Grams, died. His body was found by the St. Louis County Rescue Squad on June 3.

The accident also claimed Jesse Haugen, 41, of Cambridge. His body was located May 31. Funerals for both have been held.

A fifth canoeist in the group, Jared Lohse, 33, of Cambridge, had stayed at the party’s campsite the day of the accident and was uninjured.

Zeller, meanwhile, landed the MD500 back in Brainerd about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, May 19 — eight hours after receiving the phone call from Willis.

For her work that night, Zeller will receive a DNR Enforcement Division commendation for lifesaving action.