Posted on 02/27/2008 2:07:00 PM PST by No2much3
FOLCROFT, Pa. - A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued two PECO workers who became trapped Wednesday more than 100 feet in the air after their ground equipment malfunctioned. The men were not injured. They couldn't get down after the bucket truck they were in malfunctioned and was no longer stable, authorities said.
The men had strapped themselves to the 140-foot pole to await the rescue that occurred approximately two hours later.
The incident took place on the 1500 block of Chester Pike near railroad tracks. The unidentified PECO workers became stranded at 10:15 a.m.
The aerial platform seemed to be resting on one horizontal arm of the utility pole, just below the men. A PECO spokesman said no customers were affected.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Must have been a tricky rescue because it was quite windy in the Philly area today.
No2
Set pucker factor to 11....
"Nooo, he be stealing mah bukkit!"
CG helo pilots can do anything. Just ask ‘em... :-)
Very tricky, this one though. Have to get a strap around ‘em before letting go of whatever safety straps they got. Timing is everything. Also have to be careful not to swing in too fast and knock the guy off.
Lots harder than picking somebody up out of the water. That’s fer sure.
A true Lineman would just split his handline, tie hizzelf in, and have the ground crew take a wrap on something stable, cut away from the bucket and have them simply lower them down one at a time!
These guys are going to have to hide their face in chagrin when they go back to the hall! H_ll... a day old grunt knows how to do this!
Wonder if these numnuts are illegal aliens hired by the utility! No... I ain't kidding!
It's hard to get a rope up to them when they are 100 feet up.
I've had some SRT rescue training, and I sure wouldn't want to be picked off by helicopter if it was windy. I'd be much happier if they just found a way to get me a rope and a rappel device of some sort.
A hundred feet is a short rappel, but it's a long distance to try and toss up a rope.
PS: Well done to the Coast Guard.
A Journeyman Lineman does not walk up a pole, or go up in a bucket truck without a handline.
Number one, a handline is your lifeline. Number two, you don't go up to the work zone with just an idea! The handline is used to get new materials up, and old materials down. A good way to get your walking papers would be to shuttle up and down with the bucket to get materials... that's what your ground crew is for... time is precious. To do the work as depicted here means they had to take an "outage" (that is turn the juice off to that area), though after reading the article I see they routed the power away from the work zone. In any event, no Lineman worth his tools would be without that handline!
It’s always windy under a helicopter.
Tonk Memorial CG Bump
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