Love Goes to New Heights: Man Proposes by Using Helicopter to Pop the Question

A California search and rescue volunteer went to great lengths — and heights — to ask his girlfriend to marry him. 

Ahead of a recent practice rescue mission in Placer County, Roger Makishima asked his girlfriend, Danielle Badger, to pretend to be a lost hiker who needed to be saved by a helicopter. 

But Badger had no idea the whole situation was a ploy to ask for her hand in marriage. 

“Being that I’m very involved with the sheriff’s office, I wanted to have that represented in my proposal,” he told InsideEdition.com. “I asked [the air ops crew] if they could help with the proposal and they were all for it, right away — no questions asked."

During the "rescue," Makishima rappelled down from the helicopter and pretended to look through his medical bag before pulling out the ring and popping the question. 

“He came up and asked me, as part of the demo, what my name was and I was like I that ... that sounds like him, but I can’t see his face, I’m not sure,” she told InsideEdition.com. “But once he got the helmet and glasses and everything off, it was kind of a shock moment of, 'OK, what’s going on? Something’s different.'"

She was stunned by what was going on, but she quickly gave him a yes. 

“I guess I haven’t finished processing yet," Badger said. "I’m very happy. Every once in a while it hits me, I’ll go to call him my boyfriend and then I’ll catch myself like wait. My fiancé. So there’s still a little bit of processing going on."

Makishima added that he couldn’t have pulled off the surprise without the help of the air ops crew. 

“I can’t thank them enough," he said. "None of this would’ve happened without their help."

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