Emergency Helicopter Medics

[Davydine]

Did anyone else see emergency helicopter medics that was repeated on More 4 recently? It was fist shown last April and featured a lady who fell off a hire boat and caught her foot on the propeller. She was taken to the Royal Norfolk and Norwich by air ambulance but sadly she lost her foot.

Very scary stuff.

[Broads01]

I haven't seen it but I would be interested to do so. Is the episode available online? 

[Davydine]

1 minute ago, Broads01 said:

I haven't seen it but I would be interested to do so. Is the episode available online? 

Yes, it is on All 4 and it is Emergency Helicopter Medics episode 4

[dnks34]

Was that the incident at Acle? 

[Davydine]

1 hour ago, dnks34 said:

Was that the incident at Acle? 

Yes, I believe so. It looked as though the helicopter landed by the Bridge Inn

[JennyMorgan]

Years ago now but I was onboard an RAF Sea-King helicopter when we received a call to deliver a doctor that was onboard to Reedham Quay. There being nowhere near by to land the doctor was winched down where he stabilised the casualty before the winchman went down and retrieved the lady who had fallen in and fractured her leg. Watching the reactions of holiday makers on the ground below it must have been a memorable occasion for them. The down thrust from a Sea-King is quite considerable and a number of them made little or no effort to get out of the way, not that they had to but it would, I thought, have been prudent to have done so! We were on a joint Coastguard/RAF training exercise and I suppose we just happened to be near and handy and a darn sight quicker than an ambulance from either Norwich or Yarmouth.  One of the RAF crew explained to me that the static build up on a helicopter is quite considerable and that it has to be discharged with an earth-wire before the winchman lands. Perhaps someone knows more about such things than I do but one holidaymaker rushed over to the winchman to help him land, apparently people do sometimes do that! As I understood the conversation had they made contact before the static was discharged then the helpful holidaymaker could have been seriously if not fatally injured. 

[Vaughan]

15 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

One of the RAF crew explained to me that the static build up on a helicopter is quite considerable and that it has to be discharged with an earth-wire before the winchman lands. Perhaps someone knows more about such things than I do but one holidaymaker rushed over to the winchman to help him land, apparently people do sometimes do that! As I understood the conversation had they made contact before the static was discharged then the helpful holidaymaker could have been seriously if not fatally injured. 

This is very true! Never touch a winch man or "swimmer" before he has grounded himself. When winching onto boats they usually dunk the swimmer's legs in the sea before landing him on deck. On ships with flight decks, we have a "ground spike" which is like a long boat hook earthed to the deck by a cable, so that we can hook on to an underslung load before handling it. When flying at night, the spark that comes off that connection is amazing!

[TheQ]

Same applies to a recently landed Aircraft..

When I worked in Saudi, the locals opened the tanks for de-fueling then connected the ground spike... Bang. Exit one F15 and hanger..The idiot got away  with minor burns..