News

Teen recovering after falling 200 feet off cliff on school trip to Europe

WHITMAN, Mass. — A Whitman-Hanson Regional High School student is alive after falling more than 200 feet down a mountain on a school trip in Switzerland.

A chaperone on the trip just happened to be the Middleboro Fire Chief and he jumped into action to rescue the teen.

The rescue was even more complicated by a language barrier. The tour guides spoke German and Italian, they had to translate instructions from the chief to get the rescue organized-- all this, after the chief took a fall himself.

“All I kept thinking about was it that was my son I would want somebody down there with him as well,” Chief Lance Benjamino said.

The students on the trip were on a mountainside in Lucerne, Switzerland when the boy fell.

“We couldn’t hear him or see him over the edge,” Benjamino said.

Benjamino knew there wasn’t any time to waste. He and a tour guide made their way down, while mountain employees organized the rescue equipment the chief asked for.

“When I traversed down the mountain I started to lose my footing as well and I slid about 75 to a hundred feet and then I climbed, realistically I crawled down the mountain to find the student who thankfully was conscious and alert. He was banged up pretty bad.” Benjamino said.

Through a lot of teamwork and a stroke of luck, they got the boy on a longboard, but the rope to bring them back up wouldn’t reach.

“We had to carry him on the longboard about 100, 150 feet up the side of the mountain, about a foot at the time until we got to the rope. Then I tied the rope off to the student and to the board and through translation we were instructing them to hoist as we were lifting,” Benjamino said.

An hour and a half later they reached the summit, but the rescue chopper couldn’t get to them because of the clouds. They trekked back down the mountain to a tram, then finally to safety.

It was a traumatic start for a trip that provided memories that will last a lifetime.

“It was excellent, we saw all the way to Rome the rest of the trip was great. I just was sad the student couldn’t join us,” Benjamino said.

The injured teen is home with his family. School administrators say he will be okay.