Mauna Loa instructor Grant Phillips was flying over Waimea Canyon when he noticed two hikers trying to flag him down. So he landed and discovered that the hikers were lost and had gone for more than a day without water. Grant offered to fly them to civilization when one of the two declared that he had to retrieve their backpacks, which they’d stashed down the trail to lighten their load.
An hour later, with darkness beginning to fall, there was no sign of the one hiker. Grant even jogged down the trail to see if he could find the missing man. No luck. So he flew the one hiker to Port Allen and called the Coast Guard. The Coasties went up that evening and eventually found the missing hiker who was evidently delirious due to dehydration.