Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Topic started by: Ham on 09 January, 2019, 07:47:14 am
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This report and video is in French, but I suspect it is all very self evident if you just press play on the vid.
https://mobile.francetvinfo.fr/faits-divers/haute-savoie-un-sauvetage-spectaculaire-par-helicoptere-en-pleine-montagne_3135109.html
Rescuing a walker who has damaged his knee in the mountains. The pilot says, "It's a pretty common thing to do"
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Wow.
(Worth watching just for the visuals, but I'd love a translation of the pilot's nonchalant account.)
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Obviously bursting with The Right Stuff, but I did wonder what kind of risk assessment was undertaken there - one slip and a hidden boulder under the snow and you've just totalled many millions of Euros' worth of chopper, plus potentially wiping out your crew, no?
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The essence of what the pilot says is, time is everything, you need to be quick.
Probably enough time for a risk assessment if he really tried.
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... and he may have believed the victim stood a good chance of death if left there and the weather worsened.
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He also said that they do that sort of thing all the time, although maybe not so spectacularly.
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I think Mum has been in that helicopter ;D
(http://www.alfiecat.co.uk/yetacf/IMG_7339.jpg)
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I hope the walker had appropriate insurance. A friend of mine is a keen climber and once had to be evacuated by helicopter from the Eiger. Luckily, he had insurance. If he hadn't, he told me, he would have had to sell his home to pay for the cost of the rescue. Twits who go hill walking in Scotland with only a mobile phone to guide them and end up being saved by volunteers don't realise how lucky they are.