An Amazing Escape in Utah

[FD2]

A frightening and very, very lucky escape for these guys after an amazing rescue attempt is spoiled by a stray rope:

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=00d_1462512929





They should have rushed out to buy a Lottery ticket when they saw the state of the main rotor head, after changing their trousers.

[CharlieOneSix]

Jeez - those are some lucky people! Says a lot for the strength of that head.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I assume another helicopter was sent to pick of the remainder of the climbers or were they all in the helicopter when the rope did its bad business?

Sadly it seems the team were the recovering the body of a 43 year old climber who had previously tumbled to her death...

It was Sept. 8, 2015, and 43-year-old Kerry Crowley was just one hike away from reaching her personal summit. Crowley had 59 hikes under her belt and No. 60 was to be the crown jewel: Jacob's Ladder in Lone Peak.

"She felt like she was going to make it," said Kent Crowley, Kerry's husband. "This was it."

She was hiking alone that day, but when she didn't return home by that evening, a search-and-rescue team was called out to look for her. Instead of finding the wife and mom alive and well like they hoped, searchers discovered her body. It's believed she fell about 300 feet, but the only clues come from photographs taken from her camera, just moments before the accident.

"Where she was, there was only a small spot where they could get her," said Crowley's sister-in-law Debbie Brannelly. "It's a cliff. It's a big cliff."

Because of the terrain, it was determined the safest and most effective way to bring her body down the mountain was to send a UHP helicopter.

The pilot, Kent Harrison, had done this before, with dozens of perfectly flown recoveries and rescues attached to his name.

"This is something that's almost a weekly or monthly event for us — to get into this type of scenario," Harrison said. "This one just took a very dramatic turn."

Unseen video released to KSL shows the helicopter hovering over the recovery spot, with the blades spinning just feet away from the cliff face. And hunched over the edge of the cliff was a Salt Lake County Search and Rescue team, highly skilled and trained, carefully moving Crowley's body toward the helicopter.

"It was just in a really bad spot," said rescuer Ben Robertson. "A very precarious spot."

It happened in a matter of seconds. Cellphone video from two different cameras, shows the helicopter blades catch onto an orange safety rope. The rope isn't cut, but rather caught, and pulled by the blade. If that rope had made a full rotation, it would have wrapped itself around the main rotor and led to disaster. Instead, an almost impossible pitch and catch to the tail took place.

https://www.ksl.com/article/39628019/un ... es-the-day

[Seenenough]

I wonder if they considered using a long line or a machine with a winch as they were on a recovery mission.

The blades would have been to close to solid ground for my liking.It is always a huge risk to have people and equipment under a rotating disk especially on the high side slope.

They were very very lucky to get away with it.

A testament to the design strength of a Squirrel.

[TheGreenGoblin]

It is not often that a helicopter accident raises my mind to the thoughts of higher things but this report made me think that this escape was truly a 'The Bridge over San Luis Rey' moment where the lives of men were either to be taken or saved by capricious chance or, as some would have it, the will of an ineffable divinity.

I hope that unlike Thornton Wilder's Brother Juniper I will not be publicly burned here for the heresy of wondering out loud about the role of luck, chance, God, gnomes on the instrument panel or just sheer skill and self determination in the affairs of men and flying!

[FD2]

A bit like the theme of Ernest Gann's 'Fate Is The Hunter' - it could happen tomorrow or never at all.

[G-CPTN]

Was there an obvious 'catcha' that would have avoided the incident?

[TheGreenGoblin]

Was there an obvious 'catcha' that would have avoided the incident?

At the risk of sounding frivolous the obvious 'catcha' was when the rope caught the rotor probably because the last anchor guy didn't belay the team in front of him sufficiently, thus allowing them to board safely, before he unclipped and then moved carefully down the rope himself, without having to pull it taut. Easy for me to say but they were in a tough position and clearly needed to be choppered from that position themselves and a moment's inattention under duress was all it took.

[G-CPTN]

Thanks.

[Seenenough]

"The pilot, Kent Harrison, had done this before, with dozens of perfectly flown recoveries and rescues attached to his name."


Maybe a little bit of a pointer to pilot complacency and poor planning.

[G-CPTN]

Familiarity breeds contempt.

PROVERB
extensive knowledge of or close association with someone or something leads to a loss of respect for them or it.

[k3k3]

...searchers discovered her body.

Why do people feel the need to risk their own lives to recover dead bodies from precarious situations?

[FD2]

'It was determined that the safest way to recover her body was by helicopter.' What a stupid thing to do. There's no point risking lives recovering dead people - they will not come back to life again. The body could have been recovered by lowering it down the cliff or moved to a better spot for a safe recovery later.

If the pilot had been rescuing an injured climber - then that's a different matter. He was a working with an experienced rescue team and a stray rope could not be planned for, no matter how much briefing and planning had taken place - accidents do happen sometimes and people make mistakes, like not belaying that line properly.

Maybe this pilot will think twice next time he's asked to take part in heroic recoveries of dead bodies. If he was a cat I would say he had half a life left!