Videoclip here:
Crew Okay After Medical Helicopter Clips Power Line
Another with more story:
Home Video Shows Pilot's Heroics
Lucky escape indeed, however I would ask the EMS-drivers the following:
1.If this was a single (which I'm guessing, correct me if I'm wrong) why play Cat A when you're not going to achieve the safety of a reversing t/o as you would in a twin
2.Is it really SOP to reverse into the dark from an
unknown LZ?
And typically when the pilot lifts, they're going to lift back like this," says Lyle Butler of the Air Methods Corporation.
My understanding of a Cat A t/o, if done correct would let you land back onto the spot you took off from due to insufficient/improper clearance around LZ for safe forced landing possibilities, OR let you fly away with OEI after reaching your decision-point. (reason behind this type of t/o, not how
it looks! But it still require 2 engines)
In the clip, the pilot reverses into the powerline, but instead of landing back again to the spot he took off from, he moves a fair bit foreward which show that the reversing t/o seem even more unneccesary.
Didn't seem like the pilot had any serious controll problems either, as he didn't seem to have a real hurry of getting it back on the ground. Not that I think 20 seconds is a lifetime....
In any case, good it went as it did after the strike as it could have ended much diffrent!