A 74-year-old woman endured a wild rescue in the US after the stretcher she was on began spinning uncontrollably as she was lifted into a helicopter.
The woman was rescued just outside Phoenix, Arizona in the US on Tuesday after being injured during a hike.
The turbulence created by the helicopter’s propeller caused the stretcher to spin wildly while dangling below the aircraft
A helicopter rescue that does not go to plan Source: AP
Phoenix Fire Captain Bobby Dubnow said despite the rescue not going to plan, the best course of action was to fly the woman off the mountain.
He said the woman had slipped and hit the ground on the hiking trail, injuring her head and face, and suffering disorientation.
“In this case, the crew decided that the helicopter was going to be the best option,” he said.
“Based on the patient’s age, the mechanism of her injury, the heat of the day, the terrain, the amount of work and time it would have taken to bring her down in a big wheel or other means, the helicopter was the best decision.”
Arizona Police Department chief pilot Paul Apolinar said a line that was supposed to prevent spinning during a rescue had malfunctioned.
“Sometimes when we bring the helicopter up from the ground it will start to spin,” he said.
“We have a line attached to the basket to help prevent that. Today it didn’t. The basket started to spin.
“It’s something that’s a known phenomenon in the hoist rescue industry so we train for it.
“We did a couple of procedures to stop it, mitigate it, and be able eventually to get her into the basket.”
The pilot flying the helicopter said this is not an isolated incident, but it is rare.
“This has happened in the past, but not for quite a while,” he said.
“In the past we kind of learned some of the techniques to get rid of it and one - you probably actually see it in the video - is when they start to lower the load, and it actually does start to stop, and then we slowly brought it back up but it gets into the same downwash from the aircraft, started to spin again.”
The woman suffered nausea and dizziness but had no serious injuries.
She was transported to a trauma centre.
