Police Helicopter Capsizes Boat Carrying Firefighters and Paramedic

dfbemt

During a rescue attempt from a frozen lake near Lurgan in Northern Ireland on Sunday, a fire service boat was capsized as a result of the downwash from a PSNI helicopter.

The 2 FF's had to swim to safety and the paramedic was rescued by other fire service personnel.

The 51 year old man that they were attempting to rescue died later in hospital.

Surely these 2 services should have been talking to each other and should have been aware of the dangers.

Klunk001

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11984017

Both services gave it their best shot I suppose with limited time and options available. R-116 took casualty to hospital, sad ending.

Actual Paramedic

Well they all were there for the patient and thats the main thing along with all been safe after the event.

As for operating together, maybe some joint exercises needed and improved comms between the services.

dfbemt

dfbemt wrote: »

Surely these 2 services should have been talking to each other and should have been aware of the dangers.

Are you aware of the full facts? How do you know they weren't talking to each other?

punchdrunk

hasn't been the best of years for the PSNI heli's has it?

ivabiggon

who flies them? is it private pilots or military like down here?

Delancey

As far as I know they are civilian pilots employed by the Police , that said , I believe many of them would have military experience .

ivabiggon

sorry silly question by me, thats the norm throughout i think, it were most pilots get their best experience.

dfbemt

foreign wrote: »

Are you aware of the full facts? How do you know they weren't talking to each other?

If they were talking either
a) the boat would not have been deployed when there was such an obvious danger from the downwash
b) the heli could have been withdrawn as there was now a boat on scene.

The standard rescue algorithm taught is talk-reach-wade-throw-heli-row-go-tow which essentially tells us that the further you progress along the algorithm, the greater the threat to the safety of the rescuer.

This scenario had row and heli at the same time together which would have been against training. If they were talking there surely was somebody not listening !!

I suggest you look at the video in the link posted previously by klunk.

Cliff Hanger

I'd say the guys were pretty cold after getting out of that water!! Looked like they were in standard turnout gear with horseshoe type lifejackets on them.

Thought that the standard practice would be getting a drysuit on you before going on or in the water.....

Anyway, really glad those guys are ok but an unfortunate outcome for the casualty.

I hope that this incident brings about good outcomes in the future somehow. More training between all the agencies, or looking at their operating procedures or something.

Holybejaysus

Anybody else having trouble getting the video to play? I'm using google chrome..

kirving

They did their absolute best in such a limited timeframe, it appeared to be a mad scramble to to the best they could. Yes, they made the mistake of using the boat and heli at the same time, but since all the Firfighters are ok, I wouldn't hold it against them.