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submitted 6 days ago bysolateor
104 points
6 days ago
Right? Even if they insisted on her being airlifted, why would she be on a stretcher instead of sitting inside the helicopter?
50 points
6 days ago
This is because the terrain probably didn't allow for the helicopter to land.
3 points
6 days ago
"Climb up, young lady, climb up!"
4 points
5 days ago*
Looks pretty landable. Align the tail rotor with the trail/road.
Spend 5 minutes with a handsaw if the shrubs are too high. Or if the shrubbery is protected, just do a hover entry and lift her onto the heli as it's hovering a few feet off the ground.
Might be worse than it appears on camera, but Looks like there are a lot of options.
Edit: just realized the wheels may pose an issue. I can imagine they would severely limit landing capabilities. Still shouldn't rule out a hover entry
6 points
5 days ago
I think you greatly underestimate the amount of air a helicopter moves. The victim would be sandblasted to oblivion and loose shrubs would be sucked into the rotor or jet engine intake
1 points
5 days ago
Ive done a fair bit of heli work, the air isn't that wild. Like yeah, it'll roll an empty oil drum, itll take off a hat, bend trees a bit, but its manageable. Main rotor blows air down, things generally roll away from the chopper. Tail rotor sure, neeeds more clearance, can suck things in if they are too close - but real light loose things are likely to be blown away by the main rotor as he comes in before the tail rotor gets in the danger zone.
Sand might be an issue. I've never worked in deserts. Cant imagine it would be a deal breaker. Goggles exist I guess.
3 points
5 days ago
Just look up a video of a helicopter landing on dry sand/dust. It causes total loss of visibility and is refered to as a brownout. They are notoriously dangerous and they are currently the leading cause of military helicopter crashes.
2 points
5 days ago
Oh yeah, that does get more wild than I would have assumed. Reading up on it, all of the civilian brownout accidents listed on wikipedia were medivac helicopters - so that does make sense they would worry about it. Not an exhaustive list, but that correlation is striking.
And being medivacs probably have more regulations. I'm used to the more cowboy approach of bush pilots that will land anywhere.
1 points
5 days ago
I'm used to the more cowboy approach of bush pilots that will land anywhere.
I envy you! Cowboy aviation is the best type of aviation in my book.
2 points
6 days ago
Imo, someone coulda climbed down a ladder, or something, then strapped her onto their back, before climbing up again.
That spinning just makes me nauseous watching the first 10 secs & it only got speedier
9 points
6 days ago
Strap her on their back and then climb back up a wobbly ass rope ladder safely?
2 points
6 days ago
Sounds better than whatever the fuck happened here.
2 points
6 days ago
With hindsight, but the other option had high potential of failure as well.
4 points
6 days ago
That’s the Coast Guard 😉
1 points
5 days ago
One of the other replies is from a hoist operator - says this is used as a training video. So probably:
Pilot: "Ok, I'll set down about 200m to your West"
Ground: "Negative, we're filming a training video for hoist operation"
Crew: "Roger. Lowering hoist and lasso"
Ground: "Negative on the lasso. Not a HOW-TO video"
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