My compliments to the cameraman, no jumping around, wobbling, stupid irrelevant cuts to somebody's elbow. just a good solid consistent steady pointing the camera and letting it do its work. Thank you.
3:01 lol, love the way the paramedic at the ambulance starts to open the doors to get the stretcher out again...probably muttering "fucking flyboys...."
@@TheTomBevis My thought is an over confident pilot. I don't know what the protocols are in that country but in the UK we would be hung out to dry for landing on a stretch of road with aerial obstacles if there was a hazard-free field adjacent.
Always always always check your perimeters coming in. REcheck before you climb back in. Never land somewhere that you can't make a 360 degree turn around to check the last time before ascending. Good thing it wasn't a lot worse.
I'm a LCDR USCG i fly Rotor:H-60's,65's. Fixed: C-130's & HC-144's. Certain Wire strike accidents will happen coming from the air. But once you are on the ground their is No Excuse 0 Tolerance. I've also been an instructor pilot and that was one of the things i burned into my students. Because once you are on the ground you can see the area. i always go in and out of the LZ the same exact way, just because you know it works and won't ever fail you. common sense type thing it's a no brainier!!! Pilots forget the responsibility they have Not only for the crew and patient but for people on the ground around you. you could kill somebody throwing debris or losing control and crashing into a crowd,house,etc.
odeis5 The problem, and mistake, is making the pedal turn in the first place. It was an error, plain and simple. As for your "trees are bending to the right" nonsense, that is from rotor downdraft and that wind travels in EVERY direction equally. You really have NO idea what you are talking about.
odeis5 What nonsense, the cost are to high to blindly defend a pilot who clearly made a mistake because he is in the same business. He would have been fine but he spun on his nose instead of the center point of his machine, drifting as he did, which put he tail under the over head wires. Even so he likely would have been better off going straight up then turning. I have worked doing dangerous jobs myself and it only takes one slip of the mind to make a mistake. In my case I am lucky, I smashed the tip of a finger but did not lose it, I could have cost me my right hand altogether. Doesn't stop me from knowing I screwed up when I had no real reason. These pilots as good as they are can be yet can make mistakes too but the cost is high and there is zero tolerance for a reason. He could have lost all in the helicopter and all those EMT personal on the ground due to his mistake. As the captain of the USS Caine said. "There are mistakes and mistakes. The margin for error is narrow here"
odeis5 What you need to do is leave the piloting to the professionals who know what they're doing and what they are talking about... I have been a Flight Nurse since 1989 and even I know that you ALWAYS go into and out of an LZ the exact same way... What I don't understand though is why the LZ wasn't in the field where it ended up... A lot of lives were unnecessarily put at risk that day... Hopefully this pilot is no longer flying... At least not until he is better educated on the do's and don'ts of flying these birds... If I'd have had the misfortune of being the Flight Nurse on the mission that day... I guarantee you I would quit my job before I flew with him again... And to klk1900? Awesome post...
odeis5 Are you high? The pilot messed up. Just because it's a challenge doesn't mean he messed up less. Everything he posted is not only true, but a good point. He didn't insult the pilot, he simply said the pilot messed up, and that it shouldn't have been done that way.
Aaron White Hey...he's a firefighter/EMT... He knows everything about everything didn't you know that Aaron... Just ask him I'm sure he will tell you right odeis5 ? lol
I expected anything, not that he would turn his back and tail on the one big danger, that wire. This will have been hard to explain, especially with that huge field to his left. Awful, also for the patient.
This is "Monday morning quarterbacking,' but there were numerous people on the scene and this chopper was on wheels. They could have turned it around so the pilot didn't need to attempt that failed rotation.
Push it? In that configuration and fuel load it tips the scale at around 8,000 pounds, give or take. Even on a flat surface with 6 large guys who know what they’re doing... you’d be hard pressed to make it move an inch. This surface isn’t flat, and the only people who’d know know to attempt pushing it are the pilots. One of em weighs about 110 pounds soaking wet too, so she’d be useless for that lol
That was an accident waiting to happen all the pieces were in place. He needed more room for the flippers on top to successfully beat the air into submission for take off. Room for beating the air into submission is a key element of helicopter flight.
I was around choppers a lot as a teen and rarely as an adult. But I have always seen them use fields. The medics or firefighters contact the owner and ask if they can use it (100% of the time was a yes because the closest helipad was further away than what they had the time for). Only once have I seen them land on roadways. That was right outside of my work after someone blew threw a stopsign and destroyed another car. The pilots were super good at the landing too. Powerlines on both sides of the road plus one across the road. They had to fly over the awnings to our fuel pumps PLUS the propane tank to land. First pilot came in smooth and very clean. The second one was holding but they came in weird and almost went down themselves. I am thankful it was Tulsa Life Flight and AirEVAC because they are great here. Eaglemed was our area helicopters but had MAJOR issues with crashing (One of which happened not far from my house at the time). A lot comes down to LZ placement. The person in charge made a big error here
@medicvideo That was a very tough place to get out of. Thankfully the pilot was able to recover and land the aircraft. Good recovery, bad takeoff. Hopefully there wasn't any major damage to the bird, and hopefully the patient was alright.
Thank God none of the first repsonders were hurt, which brings me to the question regarding the person(s) initially needing the medevac. Question: In this situation, is there a protocol in place to bring in another air ambulance? Or do they revert to ground transport after something like this?
Agreed. I almost never used medivacs in the cities. Once I started working in the mountain regions of West Virginia, I found in a lot of situations (cardiac, CVA, time sensitive trauma, etc) I had a choice of either 1.5 hours ground or 20 minutes with airmedivac. It all boils down to the EMT's call but I rarely see them abused. If anything I find people not willing to use air resources when professionals around them make it seem like a wuss out instead of doing it themselves.
Love to hear the rationale for all of that. Thank goodness the people on the ground, crew and casualty were not involved in a much worse scenario. Well done to the pilot for minimising the damage
I work at power company, and we often use helicopters to transport us and equipment around. often next to a power grid, and man! i get nervous when a wire or cable or such is close to the rotor blades during landing. these videos don't help, but I can't stop watching it. And I ofcourse don't make it better by scaring my colleagues when I tell them what I saw on the Tube the other day, before a flight :P - I take my hat off for all the skilled pilots out there that brings us safe back home! :)
It is amazing that during all the arguments in this posting, no one took 2 minutes to look this up on the Internet. The Canadian Transportation Board ruled that this was a case of Pilot Error. "They're just very lucky .... They did a nice job of walking away from it." Whalen's video (shown here) was used in a TSB investigation that was opened and closed in a matter of hours. The board called it "an unfortunate accident" and said the pilot simply "misjudged the distance." BC Ambulance contracts its air ambulance service to HeliJet. The company wouldn't comment on the mishap except to say the job is inherently risky and it has never had an incident like this before. The pilot has 15 years of flying experience and remains on the job. For the story, go to: bc.ctvnews.ca/air-ambulance-slices-through-telephone-wires-1.622404
Ok guys, the problem isn't in the take off technique like so many suggest below, it's the stupidly dangerous place he landed to begin with. There's a much better landing spot very close by that he demonstrates in his emergency landing. They just didn't want to have to walk 20 feet to the road to deal with their patient. Honestly, helicopter pilots can be the laziest people ever. I've seen them hop in a $5,000,000 machine, fire it up, fly 40 feet, shut down, refuel, start up and fly 40 feet back to where it was parked, with the ground handling wheels still attached to the skids, and a group of able bodied pilots (that could have helped push) standing around doing nothing. Another good example is when you go to any fly-in event (eg. fly in breakfast), the planes park all over the field, up to a 1/4 mile away from the event, and that one helicopter always flies in, hovers twenty feet from the hundreds of people lined up for breakfast, blows grass and dust all over everyone's food, and lands as close as possible so he doesn't have to walk.
Two minutes later the patient crawled off the stretcher, exited the helo and called for a cab to take him to the hospital. When asked later if he did that because of the aircraft striking the power lines, he answered "No, it just stunk to high heaven once the entire aircrew shit in their flight suits".
. Also it is design flaw in modern helicopters Marine and Air force one have drive capabilities. That is the ability for craft to be driven into position on it's own power ie: reverse, drive, neutral. Mostly to maneuver tite spots and in / out of hangers. Overall the pilot did an excellent job recovering from a failed lift off.
The Transportation Safety Board was called in to investigate after a helicopter's blades chopped through a telephone line while taking an injured man to hospital in Pitt Meadows, B.C. The air ambulance was responding after a man pruning trees fell and injured himself on March 16. Advertisement The crew on the ground asked the pilot to land on the road nearby. When he took off again with the patient inside, the chopper's top rotor blades cut into a telephone line, slicing it in two. The tips of the blades were also damaged, and the pilot put the helicopter safely back down in a field. Nobody was injured and the patient was loaded into an ambulance to be driven to hospital. Dan Whalen was nearby and grabbed his video camera when he heard the helicopter. "I have a friend who is a pilot, thought he might be interested in the take-off and was not expecting what we saw," Whalen told CTV News. He was impressed by the pilot's poise, and said it was lucky the blades didn't come apart and hit anyone. "They're just very lucky .... They did a nice job of walking away from it." Whalen's video was used in a TSB investigation that was opened and closed in a matter of hours. The board called it "an unfortunate accident" and said the pilot simply "misjudged the distance." BC Ambulance contracts its air ambulance service to HeliJet. The company wouldn't comment on the mishap except to say the job is inherently risky and it has never had an incident like this before. The pilot has 15 years of flying experience and remains on the job.
Meanwhile the patient dies, half the town has no electricity and the chopper has a hundred grand bill to pay. And all because the pilot didn't look all around before lifting off.
Austin McClanahan If it wasn't a power line what was it? Tall poles with cables between them running fron a transformer on a bracket? Certainly looks like power lines servicing the properties on the right of shot to me. And if the accident was severe enough to require a helicopter rather than an ordinary ambulance to carry the injured to hospital doesn't that suggest that time might be of the essence?? Maybe "Kentucky Police" are cleverer than everyone else and know much more about these things, but I doubt it.
John Smith The line is a phone/ TV cable it is NOT a power line. Power lines are on the top of the pole and are never beside the pole that low. If that was a power line you would also see an awesome firework show. Which I have seen before. And let me say it again YOU DO NOT know if that patient died. Sometimes a patient just needs transported to a better level trauma center so the patient can have better care for their injuries. I would also talk about your profile pic like you did mine but im not going to be that immature. I hope you have a great day!
John Smith But I do agree with you on the fact that he didn't look prior to take-off in my opinion that Chopper should have NEVER landed there. But that just my opinion and everyone has them.
Austin McClanahan No I don't think there was a problem with the choice of landing place, the fault lay in the fact that the pilot allowed the chopper to drift backwards as he lifted. Air ambulances in the UK regularly land on motorways, in town centres and anywhere convenient when attending accidents or emergencies & I can't recall any incidents similar to this one occurring anywhere.
I have to wonder why he didn't just go straight up and THEN rotate once he knew for a fact he was well above any obstacle natural or man-made in the area, say 100 feet. Was it negligence, or is there some sort of helicopter flight principle that states you have to take off in a certain direction?
have done medevac on CH-53Ds with the Marine Corps. it was always a straight up after patients were loaded. wonder why they let it drift right knowing power lines were present
jeffg24LT21 The same way they rescue people stuck in mudslides and inaccessable areas and the way they rescued troops in Vietnam, carrying the stretcher to the evac point, into the chopper, and go. And helicopters dont get stuck in mud. You forget they move up.
@@MrWolfSnack Moving the patient likely wasn't the reason they landed on the road. Helicopters can get stuck in mud. Upon landing in the field, it appears as though their front gear sinks. It's fairly common for a skid/wheel to get stuck and result in a dynamic rollover. You can't move up if part of you is stuck to the ground. But I'm not familiar with the S76's capabilities, perhaps it was capable of landing and taking off in that field.
No offense to anyone but I work in this field and those lines are not powerlines. they are low bearing communication wires. Ethernet and some fiber. but very expensive to fix none the less.
I've worked with helicopters doing precision landings and departures. There is absolutely no room for errors. He had the room he needed but drifted off to the right instead of a straight vertical lift, extremely lucky to get a second chance.
The aspect ratio on this video has been changed to make the LZ seem more narrow than it actually is, intentionally or not. The frame is squeezed to make it "taller". Note how things seem taller than they are in real life; the EMS ground vehicles, specifically.
@MrLukeriha The pilot backed up under the power lines and then began his ascent, severing a power line in the process. How do you equate that with being "good work?"
why didnt he land in the clearing that he ended up in after the strike in the first place, surely flying between the trees and cables wasnt really a risk needed
6027sean because to get the patient into the helicopter, they would have to get him over that ditch on the side of the road, and that's not good for the patient since they want to try to keep them as stable as possible
man , this is a mental sickness. most of the pilots are blind. it's something very unclear that occurs to their behaviour. i'm not a pilot but as a human being , as a animal or as an extraterestrial you got to realize what surounds you. they are completely blind. very stupid people.
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@@juanr7229 istolit Are either one of you clowns even a pilot? I hold an ATP, instrument and multi-engine ratings. Only 3% of pilots are female and have all that. End of discussion.
+keith murray I agree turbine engines are fairly sensitive because of close tolerances but in the case of this accident, the main rotor sliced through these wires like butter.
+Tec 9 Nope. A tail rotor issue would have caused a spin. What he did was put a good ding near the tip of one rotor, and every time it went around, you could hear the sound of turbulent air from the damage point.
OK, well, I'm no expert, but, common sense would say to ascend the exact same way you descended... in that tight of a spot, slowly adjust the collective, make very small rudder adjustments, then, when clear of obstacles, adjust heading, adjust the cyclic, and fly out...
+MrDragonman36 yes, you are right... but I was talking about what to do before the initial tail strike... Dumping the aircraft into the field after the initial tail strike WAS the right thing to do...
+MrDragonman36 honestly, that is the most intelligent thing anyone has said in my opinion... oh, and I totally agree with you about the "cop block" videos... yes, we have rights, but, any way... I agree...
+MrDragonman36 Wow....very relived that you're not flying ...or if you are... nowhere near I. In a confined area departure it is CRITICAL to assess the obstacles before lifting. If this pilot had done that, those lines would of been formost in determined the departure path...and it certainly would not involve an immediate left pedal turn from the hover. Getting into a spot is NO guarantee that you can get out. This comes from a 10,000+ hrs (helos) accident free p.o.v.... so take it with you if you ever decide to try your hand at helo flying or discard it, do what they did and have a very..very short and ignominius career...
I do that with my quadcopter while taking off and landing. I make the slightest adjustments possible with my fingers, albeit, one of my fingers is partly amputated and why I take my time.
For sure. I've had a career as an electrician, and later as a communications telco-lineman. The electrical utility wires that are always above communications, would've been instantly disastrous even if they weren't energized.
I wonder, with wheel landing gear, it is easy for S-76 to do ground roll (reverse) into safer area which was only less than a hundreds feet away behind it and lift off accordingly to the portside, well it's a difficult situation anyway, absolutely the pilot forgot what his instructor told him what to do in this situation.
If you look really closely you can see a major discoloration on one if the main rotor blades. Its damaged and you see some minor flopping of that blade while its spinning. Vibrations on the cyclic must be sever enough to indicate a serious problem
how long did it take him to shut down that engine? should he not have hit, land, shut down as procedure when a the helo rotor strike something that doesnt cause a major crash??
Anton Bouchette His is the appropriate word when you don't know the gender of the person. If the pilot was a she, then she lost her license. Feel better?
Der Ser The use of the word 'their' is grammatically incorrect, and only used by illiterate fuck nuggets with too many dicks down _their_ throats to notice the world around _them_.
i was just wondering why after he hit the cord he then landed and shut off the chopper. I thnk he didnt land in the feild b4 because of mabye debree. here in Ontario we have ORNGE. The exact same chopper and we have new augusta west lands, There nice search ORNGE in the search and watch ours. I think there was debree and most likely stumps that would mess with the landing gear in the field beside. So if anyone could answer my question that would be appreciated. Could it have cut his power?
Agreed, the main rotor cut the cable and that is why you can hear the main rotors are now out of track/balance. If the tail rotor had hit he would have spun almost immediately.
Love it, how the People just stand there and not thinking of warning the Pilot, when he is about to hit the Cables. Most just lack of situational Awareness, or they just want to see things like that happen...
Looks like the line hit was telephone cable. The power lines are above the line that was hit. The large black line is phone cable suspended on a steel messenger cable.
