A hiker's misstep in the rugged terrain of the Franklin Mountains near Mammoth Cave prompted a precision rescue operation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Air and Marine Operations (AMO) on August 30. The distress call was answered by the AMO's El Paso Air Branch, who deployed a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to aid local search and rescue efforts. The operation was a joint effort involving the helicopter crew and El Paso County Combined Search and Rescue (COMSAR) team, demonstrating a high level of coordinated response.
The precarious location and the severity of the hiker's injuries required the team to carefully hoist both the injured individual and the six COMSAR rescuers to safety, lifting them some 180 feet into the aircraft. According to a statement obtained by the official CBP publication, the injured hiker was then transported directly to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. This marked the fourth collaborative rescue mission between AMO and local search and rescue operatives in August alone, highlighting a recurring need to quickly respond to such emergencies.
El Paso Air Branch Director Efren Gonzalez praised the synergistic efforts stating, "The important lifesaving coordination and training we conduct with our local COMSAR partners has really paid off with these life-saving missions," as mentioned on CBP. AMO and COMSAR's ability to efficiently leverage their partnership is emblematic of the communal spirit that courses through disaster response scenarios, where every second can mean the difference between life and death.
The AMO's mandate is to oversee missions in air and maritime environments, ranging from the contiguous United States to territories such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
🚨RESCUE! On Saturday, Air and Marine Operations’ El Paso Air Branch received a call from El Paso COMSAR unit after a U.S. citizen hiker had fallen off a cliff at the Franklin Mountain-Mammoth Cave in El Paso, Texas, and needed an emergency air extraction.
— CBP AMO (@CBPAMO) September 2, 2025
A hoist-capable UH-60… pic.twitter.com/DRCJRZoDno
