PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Rescue Swimmer vs Winchman Helicopter Rescue Question
Old 8th Jan 2010, 17:31
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Jolly Green
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: USA
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Riding the hoist down to the survivor in the water just isn't the easiest way to recover them. Once in the water, the winchman/diver is encumbered by rotor wash, noise, the rescue device (collar, basket, stokes litter or foreest penetrator) and the winch cable while trying to sort out the floundering survivor. It's actually quicker and easier to just jump in from a low pass (10 feet and 10 knots in the USAF) and figure out what to do from there. The helicopter can make a circuit to set up for the hover and the swimmer will be ready to go with the survivor.

It's especially important to get clear of noise and rotor wash if the swimmer(s) needs to wrestle the survivor into a stokes litter. In my experience this was usually only necessary for figher crews with ejection injuries to the neck and back.

Rescuing from a ship deck we would almost always hoist the medic down to make the determination of whether to use the stokes and then hoist them both back up.

Of course all of this was easy for us in the USAF because of the pararescuemen (PJ's) who could do it all: medic, parachutist, aerial gunner, rescue swimmer and overland SAR combat team. Some of them have ego issues that make them a little difficult to work with at times, although most were great. The sign on the door of the PJ office at my first rescue unit read, "The helicopter and its crew are useful tools to assist the PJ in accomplishing the rescue mission."
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