- Date
- circa 1988
- Kind
- Rescue
- Where
- Beaver Island · Charlevoix
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- aviationemergency-managementhealthcaretransportationweatherpublication
- Within
- Beaver Island · Charlevoix
Summary
Paul Welke’s March 2008 retrospective describes a late-1980s deer-season emergency evacuation. After a hunter’s leg was run over by a truck while the men were clearing a downed tree, Mike McGinnity requested a mainland flight. Welke flew through moderate snow and strong southwest winds, found the aircraft’s ADF unreliable because of static, landed at Charlevoix, remained overnight, and returned the next morning. He later met the unidentified patient again during a refueling stop.
Evidence limits
This is a first-person retrospective, not a flight log, dispatch record, clinical file, or contemporary incident report. The source gives only “late in the 80s” and a later reference to a November night; the circa-1988 date is an approximate indexing aid. It does not name the patient or document the medical outcome beyond Welke’s account.
Sources
- Beaver Beacon, March 2008, "The View from Five Hundred Feet: The Night of No Return".Publishes Paul Welke’s account of a late-1980s deer-season emergency flight after a hunter’s leg was run over, including snow, strong southwest winds, unreliable ADF navigation, a Charlevoix landing, and an overnight stay. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2008-03_Beaver-Beacon
- The held March issue scan confirms the retrospective aviation account.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2008-03_Beaver-Beacon
Added 5 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Paul Welke recounts a late-1980s emergency flight from Beaver Island, 2008”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-paul-welke-night-of-no-return-2008/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, March 2008, "The View from Five Hundred Feet: The Night of No Return". (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-05. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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