A search team of 57 rangers, volunteers and local agency personnel is searching Great Smoky Mountains National Park for Marcin Bachleda-Blaszczak, an Illinois man who has been missing for more than a week. He was last known to be at the Sugarlands Visitor Center on 22 August 2025, and his vehicle was later found in the car park after he was reported missing two days on. The disappearance is significant given the park's vast, rugged terrain straddling North Carolina and Tennessee, prompting an unusually large search operation and the temporary lifting of the park's normal drone ban to aid the effort.

Rangers first concentrated on the area around Sugarlands before widening the search both on and off trails, with the team growing from 47 to 57 members over the weekend. Bachleda-Blaszczak's family said he had shown no signs of distress beforehand, having chatted normally with his father over pizza and mentioned picking up a work shift the next day. He is described as 5ft 6in tall, around 170lbs, with brown hair and blue eyes, and officials are asking anyone with information to contact park dispatch.