LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Search and Rescue is a critical operation for Las Vegas Metro Police.
The mission for safety has always been a priority, but the loss of one of their own pushed that to a whole new level.
FOX5 visited Metro’s air support building in North Las Vegas earlier this month. Inside, there is a silence that is hard to miss. It gets even heavier as you pass a display of a uniform and a name tag.
The uniform on display once belonged to Officer Dave Vanbuskirk.
It’s a uniform he wore on a rescue mission he never came home from.
For retired Air Sergeant Dave Callen, Vanbuskirk was not just a colleague.
“He was always the kind of guy that was always trying to learn and be better,” Callen said.
On the night of July 22, 2013, a rescue call came in like so many others about a hiker that was stranded on Mt. Charleston.
Vanbuskirk responded to it.
“They put the victim in a rescue device when Dave and the victim were picked off the side of the ledge. When the aircraft started to move away, he became detached and fell,” Callen said.
Callen also told FOX5 there wasn’t anything any of his team members could have done to change the outcome.
FOX5’s Victoria Saha: Looking back now, would that have been prevented?
Callen: We were using, at the time, a non-locking hoist hook which means there’s a gate that can open and close. A non-locking hoist lock is not ideal for rescue operations in the mountains.
However, Callen said Vanbuskirk’s death became a turning point and reshaped search and rescue operations.
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Callen said.
Callen would retire in 2020 from Metro’s Search and Rescue, but he didn’t retire from the mission.
He now teaches agencies across the country about the dangers of gear that do not lock and provides training.
It is all done through his company called SR3, in honor of Vanbuskirk.
At the time of his death, Vanbuskirk’s call sign was SR3.
Saha: How did his death really make search and rescue rethink every rescue operation that came after, if it did at all?
Callen: It did, an audit was done. FAA, OSHA, NTSB they all came in and did investigations when something like that happens. It’s tough. This is a phenomenal unit. We had an outside company do an audit. They made us realize there are some things we could have been doing better, equipment that could have been better.
Metro Search and Rescue now uses new gear.
Callen showed FOX5 the hook on the chopper that locks and explains how it can’t open unless both buttons were pushed at the same time.
“If a carabiner were to roll over on top of that and pull on the gate it wont open,” Callen said.
As devastating as Vanbuskirk’s death was, it led to better gear and safer rescues.
“We have an obligation to bring all of our people home safely every single time,” Callen said.
Vanbuskirk’s spirit still flies with the team, as his initials are on the tail number of the helicopter they use for every call.
This shows us that heroes like Dave Vanbuskirk never really leave the mission.
Copyright 2025 KVVU. All rights reserved.
