After looking at the video and having winched a number of seamen off a cargo vessel which broke in two 100 NM off South Africa's Wild Coast, in a Puma 330 with basic autopilot (no auto-hover etc), I can assure you that the Greeks were doing an excellent job.
Our task was made more difficult by not having anyone to go down on the winch, so the strop on the cable was difficult to control. In those days (early 1970s) we only carried the winch operator in the back and innovations like hi-line hadn't been considered.
To add to our heroism, the sea was much rougher than in this video, the aircraft had no flotation, no liferafts and we only wore lifejackets to keep us afloat as fresh meat for longer to feed the sharks.
For your further amazement, one of my former colleagues ditched at night in an S58T off Durban and close enough to see the city lights a few miles away. The concentration of sharks including Great Whites in that area is impressive; probably they are drawn to the harbour and stuff which ships throw overboard.
Fortunately he is an experienced spear fisherman and both he and the other pilot were in immersion suits and lifejackets. Most importantly they weren't bleeding. He knew that sharks are attracted by muscle movements, so they had to resist the temptation to swim towards the lights.
Sharks have rough skins, to the extent that historically shark skin has been used as sandpaper. They were brushed by sharks as they stayed motionless, while the sharks attempted to cause bleeding from whatever they rubbed against.
Around first light they were picked up by a fast rescue boat, before we could launch our Pumas to search for them. Happy days!
Last edited by Colibri49; 19th February 2012 at 21:50.