An air force helicopter crew was kept busy by back-to-back rescues, including hoisting a girl from the Quinsam River near Campbell River.
A CFB Comox-based Cormorant was on a training exercise Thursday when it was directed to the Quinsam River, where a girl had been thrown from an inner tube and was clinging to a log.
The rescuers were onscene within 20 minutes of being requested by Victoria's Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
Capt. Luc Coates, commander of the aircraft, said the girl's red life-jacket helped the crew to spot her.
She was taken to Campbell River Airport and transferred to an ambulance as a precaution.
As the helicopter was being refuelled, another distress call was relayed from Strathcona Park.
A hiker on Golden Hinde, the Island's highest summit, had fallen and needed to be evacuated from a cliff face at an altitude of 5,000 feet. An RCMP helicopter was there when the Cormorant arrived and helped the crew pinpoint the injured hiker's location.
Despite spray from a waterfall obscuring their view, crew members lifted the man to safety.
The hiker's two companions were also flown out of the area.
