Always double check your knots!
 

Man falls 40 metres from helicopter and escapes injury in western Austria

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A man plummeted 40 metres from a helicopter Monday but escaped injury because deep snow cushioned his fall.

The 42-year-old was suspended from the helicopter by a rope to make repairs when the knot came undone :eek: and he slipped free, police in the Upper Austria town of Hallstatt said in a statement.

Although a fall from that height normally would result in death or serious injury, the deep snowdrifts broke the man's fall, officials said. He was taken by rescue helicopter to a nearby hospital for a medical checkup as a precaution but appeared to have no injuries, they said.

So he falls from a helicopter and gets rescued by a helicopter. Is there anything these wonderful machines can't do? And what was he repairing that he was tied on with a rope? Maybe a little in-flight engine maintenance?
Glad he's ok though.
-James

Seems the legendary Snowball Hitch got used....it went away when the warm exhaust air got pushed down in the rotorwash!

Reckon there was a former North Sea Diver flying that helicopter?

Unbelievable luck and a good reminder to check the safety briefings and the efficient instruction level of non own personal hoisting procedures. May be they have forgotten the pre hoisting safety check of this lucky dude by the hoist operator? Seems to me this was not a high pressure / high risk mission?

The newspaper article features a picture of a Wucher Helicopter Ecureuil but the article itself talks about an army helicopter involved in this mishap. Anyway, lucky man...:ok:

This reminds me of me ol' war days - during WWII, a pilot fell from a burning aircraft at 10,000 feet over Germany and straight into a snow bank - he walked away without a scratch ! True story !!!

The moral of this story is to always drop from a flying machine over deep snow and not over mud as one would, in the latter, be dropped in the s**t.

Current Related thread about "Real Freefall Jumping from airplanes".

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=208965

I trust he was formally repremanded by the Scout Association for such sloppy knot typing.

I'll bet he forgot to put the securing half-hitch after his bowline.

G