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Outstanding helicopter rescue video

Pumbaamd

By Pumbaamd,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
Ok, I admittedly don't know a lot about helicopters.....

But....

There's A Helipad!

Why didn't they just LAND on the helipad????:confused:

From what our resident Coast Guard posters say, it's much more dangerous to all involved if they have to land on the ship.

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Janet524

Janet524

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Hats off to the U.S. Coast Guard! When there's an emergency and when weather conditions are at their worst, these brave young men and women "run into the fire" to serve and rescue. God bless and protect them all.

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Fouremco

Fouremco

Posted
Posted
From what our resident Coast Guard posters say, it's much more dangerous to all involved if they have to land on the ship.

Even in calm waters. On a b2b in 2013, we had two USCG emergency helicopter medivacs in a space of 10 days, the first in calm daylight conditions and the second at night with far rougher seas. The biggest challenge is getting both the helicopter and the ship on the same heading at the same speed into the wind. Huge credit to the crews involved.

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setsail

setsail

Posted
Posted
Ok, I admittedly don't know a lot about helicopters.....

But....

There's A Helipad!

Why didn't they just LAND on the helipad????:confused:

 

Did you watch the vid? It says winch only outside the circle, not suitable for landing, otherwise there would be an H painted inside the circle

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squadron

squadron

Posted
Posted
Even in calm waters. On a b2b in 2013, we had two USCG emergency helicopter medivacs in a space of 10 days, the first in calm daylight conditions and the second at night with far rougher seas. The biggest challenge is getting both the helicopter and the ship on the same heading at the same speed into the wind. Huge credit to the crews involved.

 

Think of the pilots who land jets on an aircraft carrier.

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Capt_BJ

Capt_BJ

Posted
Posted (edited)
From what our resident Coast Guard posters say, it's much more dangerous to all involved if they have to land on the ship.

 

I spent 12 years on CG Cutters with helo pads on the back, 4 of those years sitting in the Captain's chair and we launched many a helo on cases just like this. A few reasons why a hoist versus a landing (keeping to very simple stuff and from the sailor perspective ... I'm not a pilot)

 

- in order to land helos on our ships we train together A LOT. We have very strict rules and very tight procedures. On the ship we have specially trained firefighting crew for helo events including training on emergency evacuation of folks from a crashed helo. Our pilots kind of like this security blanket .....

 

- not all helo pilots are "ship landing qualified" ..... this is a special skill in their community and requires extra training and regular practice to maintain the qualification. As a helo capable ship we would routinely offer ourselves as a training platform if passing thru the operational area of an airstation that did not routinely see such a ship operating in their area. Only the CG's smaller helo is used for ship deployments. CG does not use the larger H-60 type helo in ship deployments; the crews are not trained for ship landings.

 

- our flight decks are standardized and routinely inspected for compliance with these standards. Pilots like landing where they can know the conditions. They are a LOT more picky when it comes to landing on a moving object ;)

 

- a helo on deck with a spinning rotor is a very unstable thing. we tie down the helo VERY FAST on landing and can release it very fast as well. Another thing we train on A LOT. (our ships even have an automated system for this, but we practice the manual system constantly to back up the automated one)

 

- it is NOT unusual for helo to land and experience a problem that 'grounds' the aircraft until the warning light can be cleared and this usually means extra technicians and special tools. We carried those things. Land on a cruise ship, get a warning that says "no take off" and NOW what do you do? In MANY cases such a warning light happening while IN FLIGHT means return to base as soon as possible and the pilot has discretion .... in the worst case, having to figure out how to get back the rescue swimmer they left on deck when they had to return to base is a much smaller issue than getting a broken helo off a cruise ship!

 

- all this being said there have been times when CG helos have landed on cruise ships but they are rare. I suspect this was in cases where the risk to the patient by doing the hoist is VERY HIGH (they already had one heart attack) and the conditions for landing were IDEAL. I've also seen them land on very large oil tankers which can be VERY stable needless to say.

Edited by Capt_BJ
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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
I spent 12 years on CG Cutters with helo pads on the back, 4 of those years sitting in the Captain's chair and we launched many a helo on cases just like this. ....

Thanks for taking the time to educate us. Some issues I had not even imagined.

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

Posted
Posted
Thanks for taking the time to educate us. Some issues I had not even imagined.

 

Agreed. That was good reading. In 11 cruises, the only helicopter Evac was on our first cruise on Voyager. It was on the sea day on the way back to Miami from Labadee, so I assume the injured ice skater was taken back to Miami.

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