https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications...-2013-136.aspx
The above link into the preliminary report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau covering an operational event involving a Bell 412, VH-VAS on 31 August 2013 provides a horrific insight into the final moments of a failed winch rescue attempt.
Whether this casualty’s injuries required winch rescue has no doubt been debated extensively in crew rooms already. However, in the interest of determining best practice I would like to pose three questions:
1. Considering the distance from the road marked in ATSB image and the reported injury (broken ankle), was a winch rescue needed?
2. If you do believe that a winch rescue was needed, was a double lift using a single strop, over land, at a height of 80’ an appropriate means of recovering somebody “the size of the patient”?
3. Given a general restriction on live winch training over land not to exceed 15’, are rear crews being provided with realistic exposure to the potential problems, and perhaps more importantly, the control processes associated with high winching ‘live’ passengers?
Please do not see this as an attack on the crew concerned, but a genuine desire to raise debate on well established process that may be in need of review.