A Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Kodiak hovers over the cutter Alex Haley to transfer crewmen from the Selendang Ayu. (Photo by U.S. Coast Guard )
Posted on 12/11/2004 7:11:32 PM PST by Species8472
KODIAK -- Taking a helicopter through a winter gale over the Bering Sea may be the most demanding flying on earth.
Hurricane-force gusts can knock the copter side to side, up and down. The sea can rise and fall the height of a three-story building in a minute.
Driving sleet combines with Alaska's early nightfall to consume visibility, making conditions as dark as the inside of an orca's mouth. Night vision goggles help, but whipping snow reflects what little light that exists, partly blinding the view.
And then there's the moment when the flight mechanic stands in an open hatch and drops the basket on a hoist down as much as 250 feet to pluck someone from the roiling sea or a bucking ship.
Imagine leaning out from the Hotel Captain Cook roof to snatch someone from the sidewalk below -- during a magnitude 9 earthquake.
"Hoisting under those conditions, it's like riding on top of a soap bubble," said Cmdr. Bob Phillips, operations officer of the Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak and a helicopter pilot who has flown rescues in the Bering Sea. "You're moving around, and it's hard to stay on top."
Phillips spent a few moments Thursday night talking about Bering Sea flying while he waited to greet four crewmen from the HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter that crashed during a rescue attempt the night before.
Phillips and other Coast Guard officials released few details about the accident. Officials have confirmed that the helicopter went down with 10 people aboard and turned upside down in the water, but said nothing about what might have caused the crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Pray for these men and women. They go out in the worst of conditions.
Not to mention that there is very little daylight this time of year.
"Hurricane-force gusts can knock the copter side to side, up and down. The sea can rise and fall the height of a three-story building in a minute."
Make that "in a second."
The worst I ever saw on my sailboat was 20 feet, from 3 directions. It was scary enough, but it was in Mexico, daylight and 80 degrees water and air temp.
These guys are amazing!
SM
I have lost several friends crab fishing out there. The boats ice up and capsize without the time to get a mayday off.
Coastguardsmen are our most unsung heros. Especially in Alaska. How many lives have they saved? and under extreme conditions. They are very professional in every thing they do. From an old Navy man here in Alaska, my hat is off to these guys.
(MAN, THAT TOOK ME THREE YEARS! LOL)
United States Coast Guard:
Unsung solid, skilled professionals.
God bless, watch over and protect them all!
Jack.
I've seen rescues exactly as what was described - and these guys are a brave lot! Great work - under terrible conditions - God bless them for their service -
I agree, I went to Harvard on the hill (aka Clatsop community college in Astoria, OR) with a recently discharged rescue swimmer. He was one of the approximately 15 veterans of one sort or another that was part of the veteran mafia while I was there. We told some pretty tall tales of all our exploits but that swimmer had newspaper clippings and he was carrying around some huge brass balls.
These are the people that should be making millions of dollars a year - not the idiot celebrities out of Hollywood...
I agree! However, most of the folks I know in that line of work are not in it for the money.
Old unofficial USCG SAR motto:
"You have to go out. You don't have to come back."
PJ bump.
USCG calls em Rescue Swimmer or SAR Swimmers vs PJ's I believe......but they do the same SAR mission. Hard troops. Big Brass ones !
Amen!
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