Travel

Air France Pilot Plunges 1,000 Feet to Death in Sequoia National Park

MISDAVENTURE

Tom Gerbier was hiking on a very challenging route when it appears he slipped off a cliff.

Helicopter in Sequoia National Park
National Park Service

An Air France pilot who went missing on a hike in Sequoia National Park was found dead this week, 1,000 feet below a cliff. Tom Gerbier, an experienced mountaineer and ultra runner from France, started off on Oct. 17 and when he did not show up for his flight home on Oct. 18, a search and rescue operation was launched. After an aerial survey turned up no sign of him, ground teams began following his route and “noticed clues that a hiker may have fallen off a cliff in the area known as ‘The Notch,’’’ the National Park Service said in a press release this weekend. A helicopter then spotted his body and recovered it.