Rescue in the mountains by helicopter and how to act so as not to hinder the rescue and endanger the safety of the helicopter, crew and rescuers.
The goal of mountain rescuers, regardless of their specialty (paramedics, doctors, police officers, helicopter crew and others), is to arrive as quickly as possible to everyone who needs help in the mountains and other hard-to-reach places, quality care and fast, considerate and safe transport to the valley, if necessary also to a suitable medical facility. All of this is most easily achieved with the help of a helicopter, which allows us to quickly reach the casualty or patient with all the necessary equipment, even in the most difficult-to-access areas, if only the weather and other conditions allow it.
The helicopter is a device that brought about one of the biggest revolutions in mountain rescue decades ago. The extraordinary achievement of technology allows us to help people in need as quickly as possible, sometimes even saving lives. A flying “rescuer” can therefore greatly facilitate and speed up the work of mountain rescuers, but it also has its limitations and peculiarities, which especially rescuers, as well as mountaineers who happen to be present, must take into account.
To put it simply, mountain rescue by helicopter is characterized by the fact that, as a rule, everything happens very quickly, that it is tense and exciting, that there is strong wind and noise, and that even a small mistake by the participants can be fatal.
For various reasons, rescuers often do not get accurate information about the accident site. Anyone who has never flown in a helicopter in the mountains can hardly imagine that sometimes from the air, due to the size and ruggedness of the terrain, it is difficult to determine exactly where the casualty or patient is, especially if there are several mountaineers nearby or if they are wearing clothes that they are not separated from their surroundings. In this regard, brightly colored clothes are the most recommended.
A message that, for example, an accident has occurred on the way over Prag to Kredarica, but without a more precise definition of where, can force the helicopter crew to search for an unnecessarily long time and delay the arrival of rescuers to the victim. It also means additional costs, it is especially difficult during search operations, when we only get very approximate information on where he could be missing.
If you notice that the helicopter is slowly flying back and forth along the slope or slowly following, for example, a mountain path, it is likely that it is searching for the crash site. If the helicopter gets close enough to you (about a hundred meters), you can help simply.
If you know for sure where those who need help are, it is very welcome to point in the direction of the accident with your hands (and preferably with walking sticks or some other elongated object). If you need help yourself or someone in your immediate vicinity, turn towards the helicopter and raise both arms, extended and slightly apart; this is the international sign for “YES” and means: “Yes, we need help.”
If not, with the “NO” sign, i.e. with one arm extended diagonally upwards and the other diagonally downwards, let the crew know that you do not need help or you are not aware of anyone in the immediate area needing help. This is especially true when you are resting or standing still. The enthusiastic waving and greeting of a helicopter is very friendly, but when we are looking for a casualty, it can unfortunately mislead us.
How to quickly and accurately report an accident or initiate a mountain rescue intervention is not the subject of this article. Although mobile phone signal coverage in the mountains is not perfect, a mobile phone with a charged and, even better, an additional spare battery should be an integral part of mountain equipment. We need to keep enough energy in the battery until the end of the tour.
In cold weather, we carry our mobile phone in the inner pocket of our clothes to warm it with body heat. The batteries of most modern phones are quite sensitive to cold.
Do not carry a mobile phone in your backpack! If an accident occurs and there is no signal, move to another location; sometimes a few steps are enough, a move around a rock edge or a ridge, a transition from the bottom of a ravine to the edge, and the like.
When someone needs help, call 112 and give the following information to the employee at the Information Center: what happened, where (the exact location as possible!), how many are injured and how you have already helped them, your personal information and phone number, who you have already informed. He may immediately put you on a conference call with paramedics and/or a doctor. It is important that after the end of the call for help (112), the phone you used to call is free or ready to receive.
The paramedics or the doctor will likely call you back soon for further information. Both police and military helicopters used in mountain rescue are equipped with portable telephones and it they may call you right from the helicopter. The doctor may need additional information about the casualty’s condition or give you instructions on how to proceed until the rescue team arrives, the crew may need more information about the location or give you some other instructions.
Unfortunately, it has happened many times that someone called for help and gave basic information, but then the connection was interrupted or it was no longer possible to establish contact with him because his battery ran out or he was talking to someone else on his mobile phone.
If you have encountered a casualty or a patient who has already been given first aid and prepared for the arrival of rescuers, it is better to retreat, especially if a helicopter will come to help. Crowding at the scene of an accident makes it difficult for rescuers to work, but it can also be a threat to them as well as to others on the ground and in the air.
However, if you are a passenger or a bystander, do not leave the victim alone. After first aid by your knowledge and equipment, protect him from further injuries, possible falling stones, cold or heat and from slipping into the depths. First aid and second care are of course not the subject of this article. If the rescue is to be carried out by helicopter - which is very likely, except in the dark and extremely bad weather conditions - you should consider the following facts for your safety and the efficiency of the rescue:
Before the arrival of the helicopter, the task of the bystanders is to remove all objects that could be lifted into the air by the rotor blade (clothing, backpacks, etc.) in the vicinity of the casualty or the expected landing of the helicopter. One or two of the bystanders should crouch near the casualty, the rest should retreat to safety. It is best to retreat several tens of meters from the place above which we expect a hovering helicopter. It should be taken into account that the dust of the rotor can raise a lot of dust, fine sand, loose snow and the like.
During rescue by helicopter, the most important dangers for the victim and accompanying companions are the rotor blades, falling stones and rotating parts of the helicopter (main and tail rotor).
The rotor noise is very strong. When approaching the helicopter, the wind speed does not increase gradually, but usually the rotor gust reaches the ground as a sudden strong gust - the wind speed near the helicopter can well exceed 80 km/h, and the gust can reach tens of meters below the hovering helicopter. It can blow away not only a piece of clothing, but also a backpack, poles and other pieces of unsecured equipment and - this is even more dangerous - it can knock down or fall into the depths of an unprepared standing person.
On steeper slopes or in the walls, it can happen that the helicopter will trigger a fall of stone, and in winter also an avalanche, so it is necessary to withdraw from the landing of the hovering helicopter to a safe place or at least put on a helmet, and if you don’t have one, protect yourself with a backpack. The same applies to the casualty; it must be protected from possible falling stones. If you are e.g. tied to a wall or attached to a steel cable of a secured route, try to find shelter under an overhang. In winter, it is necessary to switch off avalanche traps, of course in a place safe from avalanches, and to stop immediately. Departure from the site is permitted when the helicopter withdraws from the search site or rescue.
As a rule, rescuers disembark from the helicopter near the victim - by descending a cable or by directly exiting the hovering helicopter. In very steep terrain, for example in a wall, the rescuer or the doctor, or both of them together, descend by cable to the exact spot of the accident. If the helicopter is hovering on the slope while the rescuers are being disembarked, the rotor on the side where the terrain rises can be very close to the ground! That’s why you should never move up a slope when the helicopter is in operation. A rotating main or tail rotor can easily cut through a person. Movement near a working helicopter is very dangerous, as its rotating parts are usually not visible at all due to the high speed of rotation.
If necessary, in the area of an operating helicopter, move only in front of its front half so that the crew can see us. This also applies to paramedics. But it is best to crouch down, cling to rocks, rubble or something similar and wait for the helicopter to fly away.
As a rule, the most demanding and dangerous form of helicopter rescue is the wall rescue. If the terrain is rough and steep, the helicopter crew that will spot the link below the crash site may need to take a different approach to avoid risking falling rocks. This, of course, means a longer resolution time. It is also very unfavorable for the crew if they see people above the crash site on a steep slope or wall. There is a danger that stones will be triggered, if there is a populated mountain path nearby, it often happens that curious people quickly gather there, craning their necks and arms with cameras, thereby unnecessarily endangering their safety and straining the crew’s nerves in a helicopter. Therefore, any climbing, ascent or descent above and below the scene of the accident during the rescue operation, especially if a helicopter is involved, is unacceptable for safety reasons.
If you find yourself near the rescue site, it is best to find shelter, but if the terrain is steep, secure yourself or secure your equipment, stay calm and wait until the helicopter moves away! For climbers, they must tighten and fasten the ropes so that they do not flutter during the gusts of the rotor. If they get into the rotor disc, it can be fatal or at least very expensive. Years ago, during a rescue, the rope came into contact with the main rotor arm. Barely visible to the naked eye, the damage required an emergency arm replacement, which costs between $60,000 and $90,000, depending on the type of helicopter.
Only when you have secured yourself and are sure that you will not hinder the rescuers, can you think about taking pictures, which is quite popular with the often attractive scenes of helicopter rescue. Also note that the helicopter usually first drops the rescuers at the casualty and withdraws for a while, and then approaches again and boards or. lifts the casualty and rescuers into the helicopter with a winch.
In steep walls, the rotor of the helicopter can come within two meters, sometimes even less, of the rocks during rescue, and then any disturbance can be fatal. These are very tense moments for the crew, don’t make them more difficult by being reckless!
Even falling rocks can be fatal to a helicopter quickly. It is not necessary to be hit by a rock - for a disaster it is quite enough that e.g. a smaller rock hits the tail rotor or exposed rotating parts of the control system. The tips of the rotor arms rotate at a circumferential speed of about 700 km/h; the impact of a stone can, of course, tear off a piece of the blade and thereby cause strong vibrations, which can cause the entire tail rotor to disintegrate in a few seconds or, in the case of major damage to the main rotor blades, the main reducer coupling can be pulled out.
The possibilities of damage to a helicopter due to falling rocks, fluttering ropes and other unexpected obstacles therefore range from high costs and repairs, which can put the helicopter out of rescue for a long time, to a disaster that, in addition to the loss of a valuable helicopter, requires much more valuable human lives.
The example of rescue by helicopter years ago in the north face of Rjavina clearly showed what climbers should not do during rescue in the face. When we got very close to the wall with the helicopter and wanted to start rescuing, we noticed that the neighboring attachment continued climbing right above the casualty. She was not bothered by the approach of the helicopter, the climbers did not understand the signs of the winch operator.
We had to stop the rescue maneuver, but luckily we were soon able to contact them by mobile phone and tell them to stop climbing immediately and take cover. It was only when the leader in the mooring died down that we could continue the demanding maneuver of approaching the wall, descending and lifting the casualty.
A similar case occurred during the search for a missing person in Kotliške graben. At the moment of the search, the tour skiers climbed undisturbed in an area very dangerous for avalanches and thus hindered the flight and the search with the help of the helicopter, which was partially paralyzed because of this and could not carry out the planned flight, at the same time the crew had to be careful not to endanger the lives of climbers or triggered an avalanche that could be fatal for ski touring.
If you find yourself in the mountains in the immediate vicinity of a landing or hovering helicopter, it is best to crouch, sit down, or make sure that you are as stable as possible so that you are not knocked to the ground or even plunged into the depths by the sound of the helicopter. Take care of items that the dog can carry (backpacks, clothes, poles, skis…). Approaching a helicopter, especially its rotating parts, can be fatal. Do not do anything without instructions from paramedics, do not move until they reach you or until the helicopter takes off and moves away.
We thank our long-time supporters who help us on our way.
