gwk Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 March 18, 2011, Pitt Meadows, B.C. - An Air Ambulance clipped telephone wires while trying to fly out a man who injured his back Wednesday afternoon while pruning trees in Pitt Meadows. The man was standing in the bucket of a tractor on a property off McNeil Road when he lost his balance and fell 4.5 metres into a ditch. “He was half in the water and half out,” said Pitt Meadows assistant fire chief Brad Perrie. Firefighters lifted the man out of the ditch and transported him to a helicopter, which had landed on McNeil Rd. As the helicopter took off, its rear rotor hit an overhead phone line. As the helicopter took off, its rear rotor hit an overhead phone line. Dan Froom, executive director of the B.C. Ambulance Service, said the pilot felt vibrations after hitting the wires and landed the helicopter in a nearby field . Firefighters transferred the injured man into a waiting ambulance, which transported him to hospital via road. The helicopter remained in the field overnight. “The helicopter needed to be checked out to make sure it was safe,” Froom explained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF_was_that Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 I bet the front seats need cleaning too..... :shock: User Name: Matthews, Meghan Date: 2011-03-17 Further Action Required: No O.P.I.: Commercial & Business Aviation Narrative: Pitt Meadows RCMP report a Medivac flight operated by Helijet International Sikorsky S76A (C-GHJT) was departing from a Farm on McNeil Road at 16:10 PDT with four people on board for Vancouver General Hospital when it stuck a wire. The helicopter landed safely in a field, no injuries reported. Damage to the helicopter is reported as the tip caps on the main rotor. User Name: Matthews, Meghan Date: 2011-03-18 Further Action Required: Yes O.P.I.: Commercial & Business Aviation Narrative: UPDATE / Add info from TSB: A11P0052: At 1610 PDT, the HeliJet S-76 (C-GHJT) was taking off from a farm field on McNeil Road near Pitt Meadows, BC, on a Medevac flight to Vancouver General Hospital with 4 persons on board when it struck an overhead electrical power wire. The helicopter landed in the field without further event. There was no injury and damage was limited to the main rotor blade tip caps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Three_Per Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Did this exact thing not happen to an Ornge machine like 2 years ago. Maybe I'm crazy but I swear there was a 76 that hit a telephone line and the pilots didn't know until they were on the ground and someone who witnessed it called them to let them know they hit the line. ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heliian Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Almost a year ago on the QEW near Toronto, Ornge s-76 whacked a wire on take off. Video from gawker : http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100326/100326_qew_closure/20100326/?hub=CP24Home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heliian Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Here's the video of the actual bladestrike in BC, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ZrUm3QweE gotta love modern tech, someone is always watching. Luckily no injuries on board or on the ground! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hollywood Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Wow!! amazing footage of a blade stike though. glad they got it on the ground safely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinstar_ca Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 agreed, hollywood... that footage will be a great teaching tool for others.. interesting that in the latest issue of V911, there is a story of a near rotorstrike on a tower... good job to the crew for getting it down safely... :up: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuddenStop Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 good call to land after yes.....kind of a no brainer. bad call to land there in the first place. As a first responder who works with medical flights on occasion we are to set up a 150' X 150' landing zone. Here's Ornge's guide for reference readily available on the internet. http://www.ornge.ca/programs/documents/ornge%20onscene%20safety%20procedures%20-%20nov%202010.pdf Maybe Helijet could pick up some of the finer points to prevent a bigger tragedy in the future. Ornge learned their lesson. So can Helijet, and I'm sure many of you tasked to do medevacs in small towns could be better prepared too. In the above case they should never have landed there in the first place. The best available option would be a short ground ambulance ride first to a safer, more open location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMike Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Purely armchair quarterbacking....but why did he turn so soon? Did he just forget about the powerlines? I'm not slinging accusations. I'm just asking...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auto Relight Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Unnecessary maneuvering in a confined area, good lesson on video. How many times have we seen that same scenario over the years? Glad it ended well. AR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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