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iOTWreport.com ©2024 ----- iOTWreport is not responsible for the content of comments. All opinions in comments are solely the commenter's.
Friendly fire incident?
That’s Pacific Coast Highway at Pepperdine, you can see the Pepperdine sign at the very end of the clip. That would have been from a month ago during the Franklin Fire.
I’m sure those standing so close to the fire expect a little imperfection.
Its fun to get hit by a firehose through a window by someone who doesnt know youre on the other side, too.
…but this aint no joke, aerial drops can be pretty darn lethal. Wearing PPE at all times and situational awareness are requirements, and even then pray the Lord for their safety…
https://youtu.be/ONdSoiI4zIA?si=jOyP4nl1Q63PvgPI
My father used to fly choppers for the LACFD until his death in 1981. At that time all the pilots were veteran pilots with Vietnam combat missions under their belts. Occasionally accidents like this would happen, occasionally with injuries. I have no idea what type of pilots are being hired nowadays are like, but from seeing the top three lesbos in the dept, my expectations aren’t very high.
Stay away at least 50 feet? How about 200ft. lol. Daaaang, SNS. That was insane.
What is that fire retardant made of? I saw long shiny things that looked like glass.
I hope that none of the DEI hires were injured.
JMV
Tuesday, 14 January 2025, 10:50 at 10:50 am
“My father used to fly choppers for the LACFD until his death in 1981. At that time all the pilots were veteran pilots with Vietnam combat missions under their belts. ”
…we should all be grateful for your father’s service, both in the war and after.
I was in EMS starting in the ’80s so our Air Care pilots were all except one ex-Vietnam. They were quite good at landing in awkward spaces (althogh Im sure civilian rules seemed cowardly to them) including the time a lieutenant ordered us to make an LZ on our firehouse apron which was conveniently cater corner to this particular wreck, which was fine on square feet but was a pretty good slope. Dude landed that thing like a bug on the wall though, but he did mention that he had this tip indicator that was flickering and if it stayed on the FAA would require the helicopter be returned to the airport on a flatbed, but due to his skill, happily that did not happen.
It wasnt always possible to clear an LZ for them though due to manpower, time, and other considerations, so sometimes they would make their own by flying to the emptiest corner of the nearest shopping center and hovering for a bit, using the downwash to run the carts off in all directions. I suspect they kind of enjoyed that but they were too professionalto let on.
…but they had made their peace with the dangers of their profession long ago. A lot of times they would “hot load” for time meaning the rotors would be left turning, and our service at that time had this weirdly loading thing with clamshell doors in the back that forced loading crews to pivot around close to the whirling tail rotor to load the patient. Since everyone was focused on the patient and securing the cot they werent paying a lot of attention the the juicer blade spinning madly behind them, so the pilot would take up station between the loading crew and the tail rotor, playing Catcher In The Rye to keep clumsy firemen and distracted flight surgeons from being puréed. He seemed REALLY uncomfortably close to the thing when doing so to ME and he had his BACK to it, so one time when I was working LZ and we were waiting for the squad to return from the scene I asked the guy, “So what would you do if someone bumped into you real hard?”.
He answered matter-of-factly with no change in tone or expression, “Die”.
That was it.
And he was OK with that chance, if it saved another.
(Not sure who would turn the helicopter OFF if that happened with the only pilot dyeing the nearest wall red, but they came back so it became too busy to ask, and happily never actually came up).
I dont know what the kids have now, but I felt pretty blessed to have such men available to us then.
God bless ’em, Time has probably taken quite a few now, and their courage and skill with them.
But they made a difference there, and here, and I will not forget them as long as I live.
This isn’t as bad as it looks. Water is taken where you can find it and sometimes that means a muddy pond. Sure the guy got soaked but no worse than someone dumping a bucket of water over your head. Been there.
No government accountability.