[snip]
"Larsen said it wasn't unusual for ships to be used in rescue operations instead of helicopters and said people are safely transferred between ships in Norway every day."
That will teach you not to be pining for no fjords.
One of the men was heard saying, “You’re going to have to swim the rest of the way”.
I’m sure everyone involved was horrified. Poor guy lost his wife and the rescuers have to live the rest of their lives with this haunting them. I hope they can all find some peace.
I would think if she was strapped onto the stretcher securely, that she would have drowned and that not being strapped to it gave her a chance?
It just seems like it took way too long for them to rescue her.
Anytime, peace or war, rough water or calm, moving people between two boats on the water is never a sure thing.
I remember one time, coming back from liberty, as the liberty launch full of drunk sailors pulled up to the stern of the carrier, the water was rough enough that the platform attached to the stern of the ship was rising and falling, while independently of that, the liberty launch was rising and falling at a different rate.
The result was, the boat and the deck were sometimes as far as six feet away from each other, and were swinging wildly past each other. We had to time it, so that as the two rushed past each other, they would occasionally pause for a second or two nearly even, and two or three drunk guys would leap over before it began oscillating again.
There were a few instances where people leaped badly or stumbled and either ended up in a heap on the other side, or had people grabbing them to pull them all the way over. People all doing this while completely intoxicated. To this day, I am not only amazed they were trying to get people aboard in this fashion, but also that nobody was seriously hurt or crushed between the vessels.
I also read about the battle for Iwo Jima, where they had a large pallet with 24 wounded Marines in litters on it, and they were hoisting it onto a ship. The hoist gave way, and all the men went into the water. None were recovered.
RIP.
I have two thoughts, OUCH (having been in 30 degree water for 10 seconds myself)(and glad it wasn’t 8 minutes). Two, were they really in such a hurry that they couldn’t have just STOPPED to transfer her or would that have had it’s own dangers? (i.e. giving directional control over the ship to the sea). I’m from the Air Force family and don’t know my Aft from Stern, so enlighten me.
Put a line on the patient and lower her? Or at least have a line on her? It’s a wonder she wasn’t sucked into the screws.
I’m sure it will be easy for those who have never rescued a single person in their lives to second guess these rescuers.
May God be with grandma and all involved.