Chopper Pilots Pick Up Rescue Technique

The helicopter hovers inches above the waves while a rescuer, tethered to the chopper, tosses a loop-shaped device to a victim in the water. The aircraft then rises, plucking the victim from the ocean on the end of a 40-foot line. The rescue is a success.

That scenario was played over and over Thursday as police helicopter pilots from four agencies worked with Huntington Beach Marine Safety officers to perfect a maneuver that can save lives in swift-water rescues.

Helicopter units from Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the county’s Harbor Patrol participated in the early afternoon training session.

Two Marine Safety officers and three police officers with training in swift-water rescue techniques took turns portraying the victim.

Officer Jim Lail, a 26-year Huntington Beach police helicopter pilot who coordinated the exercise off the city’s beach, said the purpose was to familiarize personnel with the maneuver as well as to test a new rescue device, which costs less than $300.

“We now have the ability to get the victim out of the water,” he said, instead of only spotting a victim from the air for a rescue team launched from dry land.

“I’ve been watching kids go down channels, and it was just sickening that the police helicopter wasn’t capable of doing anything,” Lail said. “We had this helpless feeling.” The new device, he said, “puts us in the ballgame.”

Called a cinch rescue collar, it is slipped over the victim’s head and arms. The observer tugs on the rope, releasing a mechanism that allows the collar to cinch around the victim’s upper torso, holding the person securely.

Lail said rescuers need only about three minutes to land a helicopter, hook up the device and be airborne again. “Our goal is to get the victim out fast,” he said.

But swift-water rescues are a last resort to save a victim, Lail said.

In bad weather or in areas with overhead power lines, bridges, trees and cables, rescuers are at risk, officials said.