A group effort and quick response is needed in all serious
accidents, but is even more critical in the remote regions of
Alaska, as Gates of the Arctic National Park Ranger Seth McMillan,
a son of Mick and Lynn McMillan of Bradford, knows well.

On June 21, McMillan, with the help of his community, responded
quickly to save the lives of a couple who were involved in a
floatplane crash in a spruce bog outside of Bettles, Alaska.
McMillan said Bettles is a small, remote community north of the
Arctic Circle with only about 30 people in the village.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, James, the pilot, and
Leane McMillin from Texas, fueled up their floatplane in Bettles
and were on their way to a lodge in the Brooks Mountain Range, the
northern most range in the U.S.

McMillan explained that a local woman was out walking her dog
when she heard the McMillins’ plane crash. The woman then called
McMillan’s neighbor, who he was visiting at the time, and told them
about the plane crash at the float pond, about 2 1/2 miles from
their village.

McMillan said he and the neighbor took a boat to the pond and
went out to the crash site, where the McMillins were pinned in the
plane. Upon McMillan’s arrival, two men had already arrived to the
site in a floatplane, and the crashed plane was leaking fuel.

McMillan said the McMillins’ plane was a Cessna 185 on floats
that stores a lot of gasoline, and all of the gas was running down
from the wings.

“It was a steady stream of gasoline,” McMillan said. “Any kind
of spark could set all things ablaze. It could happen very quickly
so we needed to get them out quickly or we were going to have to
watch them burn. In hindsight, we were taking a high amount of risk
by entering that scene.”

McMillan said they worked to try to get the couple out. He said
Leane McMillin came out fairly quickly, but James McMillin was
“pretty well stuck in the airplane.”

As rescuers attempted to get him out of the plane, a fire broke
out underneath the pilot’s chair.

“It was pretty touchy there,” McMillan said. “The pilot was
still trapped in the aircraft when the fire started.”

McMillan said he grabbed a fire extinguisher and used it to
extinguish the fire just enough so they could “forcefully” get the
pilot out of the plane.

“We had to get them out before the plane exploded,” McMillan
said. “We had to use quite a bit of force to get him free from the
plane.”

McMillan said the couple was taken a safe distance away from the
plane. From there, they were taken by boat to the docks, where
“everyone from the community … pitched in and helped to get the
folks treated.”

Being one of the trained medical providers in the community,
McMillan said he initially was the caregiver for both of the
patients until he met the other members of the community. Then,
another local pilot in the village administered first aid to Leane
McMillin while McMillan continued to administer care to James
McMillin until a plane came from a hospital in Fairbanks, Alaska –
about 230 miles away from Bettles – where the couple was taken for
medical care.

“I never thought that we’d be able to do something that
difficult,” McMillan said of the accident. “It was a very stressful
situation. We provided the necessary care … but it was certainly an
intimidating event. They certainly would have died if people in the
community didn’t come out. It was really a community-type
effort.”

McMillan said he recently checked on the McMillins, who were
doing well but won’t be able to return to Texas for another two
months due to the severe extent of their injuries.

“They had broken ankles, wrists, ribs, pelvis and legs,”
McMillan said. “They both had skull fractures, and the lady may
lose the use of one eye. James has undergone a number of surgeries
and now has a plate in his head from the skull fracture. They have
a long, long list of injuries, but … they’re very happy to still be
alive. They’re kind of on a slow road to a full recovery.”

McMillan said James McMillin was “very, very thankful for
everyone’s effort and owed their lives to us for the efforts that
we provided.” He said Leane McMillin is still unable to talk.

McMillan has worked for the park service for about eight years,
starting when he was going to college here in Pennsylvania. He was
certified to be a seasonal park ranger in national parks and worked
in some of the national parks in the West, including Yosemite and
Great Basin national parks, before going to Alaska with his wife,
another park ranger.

“My family was always very thoughtful and helpful, which is
where I got some of my drive to be kind of a person motivated to
help other people that are in need,” McMillan said. “It was
instilled by my grandparents and parents. That level of caring,
helping those in need, started from an early age. I think of them
often and appreciate all the love and support they gave us. My
wife’s and my road took us in a very different direction. It’s not
always easy being 5,000 or 7,000 miles away, but they’re always in
our thoughts.”

McMillan and his wife are permanent employees of the Gates of
Arctic National Park as national park service rangers for eight or
nine months of the year, visiting family and taking vacations for
the other three months.

McMillan said Gates of Arctic National Park is the second
largest national park in the U.S. with nearly 9 million acres in
the Brooks Mountain Range. He decided to work at the park to
“experience the last frontier.”

McMillan said he has been providing services to visitors in need
as long as he has been working through the national park service.
He has helped hikers stranded and lost. He also said this crash was
his second airplane accident in Bettles, but this one was the more
severe of the two.