A Plano soldier stationed in South Korea helped pull 21 people from an overturned tour bus that had slid down a wet hillside near the country's demilitarized zone, working with four fellow off-duty service members to smash through the windshield and carry passengers to safety before local emergency crews arrived.
Spc. Karan Sharma, a fire direction center battle systems operator assigned to the U.S. Army's 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Osan Air Base, was on an off-duty DMZ tour on June 20 when the rescue unfolded, according to FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth. Sharma's brigade, nicknamed the Dragon Brigade, is subordinate to Eighth Army and provides surface-based air and missile defense coverage across the Korean Peninsula, per the unit's Wikipedia entry.
Sharma was not alone. The rescue team also included Army Staff Sgt. Alexander Martin and Spc. Arturo Lara, along with Air Force Maj. Tessa Land and Chief Master Sgt. Brandon Abbott, according to reporting carried on Army.mil. Osan Air Base hosts both Air Force component commands and Army air defense units, an arrangement that regularly puts soldiers and airmen together on the same off-duty excursions.
A Bus Ride Back From the DMZ Turns Dangerous
The group's own bus was returning from a morning visit to Dora Observatory, the hilltop viewing post in Paju that draws more than 800,000 visitors a year to look out over North Korean territory, according to VisitKorea. Their bus had paused on a steep hill road to let an oncoming tour bus pass when that second vehicle lost traction on the wet slope and rolled onto its left side, per Pacific Air Forces.
With the overturned bus's primary exit door blocked, the service members bent aside the vehicle's still-active windshield wipers and straddled a drainage ditch to widen a crack in the windshield, climbing inside despite suffering minor cuts from the broken glass. Once inside, they worked systematically from front to back to reach the shocked passengers, ultimately helping free all 21 people trapped in the wreck.
Carrying a Blind Girl to Safety
Among the passengers pulled from the wreckage was a blind girl, whom the rescuers helped her father carry to a safe rally point the group had set up away from the sloped roadway. Sharma and the other service members rendered aid to injured riders and worked to stabilize the scene until local South Korean first responders arrived.
Osan Air Base officials later praised the off-duty group for their quick thinking and selfless response. Maj. Laura Hayden said the service members' actions helped prevent the situation from becoming much worse, and an Osan Air Base news release credited Sharma and his fellow rescuers with showing that training and service values carry on beyond the duty day.
Regulated Roads Near a Sensitive Border
The crash unfolded along one of the tightly controlled routes that funnel civilian tour buses through Paju's DMZ security zone. Civilian tours in the area are required to travel through designated entry points such as Imjingak Pavilion, routing large buses along steep border roads with limited alternatives, according to VisitKorea. Dora Observatory itself was rebuilt at its current location in October 2018 and remains one of the primary sites open to civilian tour groups along the border.
Official word of the rescue did not surface publicly until Aug. 5, when the 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs office at Osan Air Base released its account through the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, more than six weeks after the incident occurred. It remains unclear whether Sharma and the other four service members will receive formal military commendations for their actions, and the current medical status of the injured passengers who were handed off to South Korean emergency crews has not been made public.
