77 year old woman falls from Tokyo rescue helicopter

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CharlieOneSix
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77 year old woman falls from Tokyo rescue helicopter

#1 Post by CharlieOneSix » Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:58 pm

Maybe some would prefer not to watch this video.

The 77 year-old woman fell about 40 metres from a helicopter during an evacuation procedure in Iwaki city, about 195 kms north east of Tokyo.

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=knTsE_1571017688

It's difficult to see what kind of lift they were doing but it obviously wasn't with a single lift strop. Some kind of double lift harness. Maybe she put had her arms out to help the rescuers get her inboard - rather than keeping her arms by her side - and somehow she fell out of the strop.
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TheGreenGoblin
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Re: 77 year old woman falls from Tokyo rescue helicopter

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:19 pm

That was really sad to see. I can imagine how appalled the winch man must have been to have lost somebody at the door of the helicopter.

I remember reading about something similar during this sea rescue.

FV Alaska Ranger

So near, but so far...

A rescue swimmer put a hypothermic man into a basket but he never made it into the helicopter safely. It was assumed he had fallen out of the rescue basket due to the weight of water in his survival suit.
With his survivor halfway out of the basket, Musgrave couldn't pull it entirely inside the rig to unload. Instead, he boomed it in as close to the helicopter as possible and reached for his knife. The man's survival suit had filled with water, adding as much as 100 pounds to his weight; Musgrave planned to slice the suit to let the water drain out. But in the second that he turned away to grab his knife, the fisherman slipped. When Musgrave turned back, the man was hanging by his elbows from the open door.

Musgrave desperately tried to haul him up, but the weight was too much. Within seconds, the man let go. "He's gone, he's gone," Schmitz heard Musgrave repeat through his headset. Forty feet below in the water, Schmitz could see the fisherman's light, still blinking. For an instant, he thought he saw the man move his arms in the waves. "He's okay, he's moving," the pilot said. But then, a heart-wrenching reality set in: "Never mind. He's face down."
Sinking of U.S. Fish Processing Vessel Alaska Ranger Bering Sea, March 23, 2008

The courage of these rescue crews is outstanding.
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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