Dramatic rescue: 4-year-old boy pulled from mudslide by helicopter
As the search for survivors in the Washington state mudslide enters its fifth day, a stunning video of a 4-year-old boy being pulled from the mud by helicopter has been released.
The footage, taken on Saturday by the Snohomish County Helicopter Rescue Team, shows the boy, Jacob Spillers, airlifted from the dirt that buried his family's Oso, Wash., home.
According to the Seattle Times, the boy told rescuers that his father, Billy Spillers, and three siblings were at home watching television when the slide hit. Jacob was on the second floor and was able to get out, but the others were not.
The boy's mother, Jonielle Spillers, was not home at the time of the slide. She frantically called local hospitals and found Jacob, the Times said. Her husband and three other children — Brooke, 2; Kaylee, 5; and Jovon, 13 — remain missing.
Saturday's landslide killed at least 16 people and left more than 175 others unaccounted for, officials say. Rescuers have found no survivors since Saturday, but they're not giving up hope of a miracle similar to Jacob's rescue.
"We haven't lost hope that there's a possibility that we can find somebody alive in some pocket area," Snohomish County District Fire Chief Travis Hots told reporters late Tuesday, after eight more bodies were discovered.
