A search and rescue technician who helped save the sole survivor of the Cougar helicopter crash of 2009 is receiving a Governor General of Canada Medal of Bravery. Ian Wheeler fought two-metre-high waves and the wind action from the rescue chopper’s rotor blades to reach the survivor as he was lowered from the helicopter. Wheeler found the survivor fading in and out of consciousness as he floated in a field of debris from the crash… and plucked him from the water.
