35 Miles from Shore (25 page)

Rylee spoke briefly with the captain then maneuvered over a man and woman who were floating together in the water. The woman was holding onto the man, who didn't appear to be conscious. Lindley lowered the rescue sling and using hand signals was able to guide the woman into the sling. Upon entering the helicopter, the woman immediately expressed concern for her husband, who remained in the water. Lindley assured the woman that they weren't going to leave her husband behind. He leaned over the side to get a better look. Lindley told Rylee over the ICS that the man looked unconscious, adding that his eyes were closed and that he was leaning back in the water motionless.

“Do you want to go down after him?” Rylee asked.

Lindley was the more experienced hoist operator. He turned to Brazzell. “Will you go in?”

“I'll go,” Brazzell said without hesitation. Brazzell had received rescue training prior to joining the VC-8 squadron, but it had been several years since his training, and it did not include training as a rescue swimmer. In fact, none of the men on the helicopter were experienced in performing rescues. Their main job at Roosevelt Roads involved the recovery of target drones. Before lowering Brazzell, Lindley removed the rescue sling and rigged up the Boyd seat once again. It was the only way to bring up two people at the same time. Brazzell, wearing his flight suit, helmet, civilian shoes, and a Mae West life preserver, sat down on the Boyd seat and was lowered to the water.

As soon as he made contact with the water, Brazzell made the decision to remain on the Boyd seat. The seas were too rough and
the winds too strong to risk letting go. He used his hands and arms to paddle his way over to the unconscious man. Lindley had to let out just enough slack in the cable to prevent Brazzell from being injured by the Boyd seat, which would snap against him each time the cable became too taut.

As Brazzell neared the unconscious man, a wave washed over him and something hit him over the head. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of the object that had struck him; it was an aircraft tire. He shook it off and continued paddling. Brazzell knew as soon as he reached the man that the man was dead. His skin was already turning blue. He decided to try to retrieve him anyway. He maneuvered the Boyd seat under the man with the man's legs wrapped around Bill's waist. The man was so large that Brazzell couldn't get his arms completely around him. He held on as best as he could and signaled to Lindley to bring him up. They didn't get very far into the air before the large man slipped from Bill's grasp and fell back into the water. Bill turned toward the helicopter and gave Lindley a thumbs down signal to indicate that the man was dead. Lindley nodded then hoisted Brazzell back up to the helicopter. Bill, cognizant of the fact that the man's wife was in the helicopter, wasn't about to give up just yet. He started looking for something inside the helicopter that he could use to tie around the man. He plugged into the ICS to discuss the situation with Rylee.

“Is he alive?” Rylee asked.

“As far as I can tell,” Brazzell said, “he's dead.”

Jim made the decision to abandon any further attempts at retrieving the man. There wasn't time to waste trying to retrieve a dead man when there were other people in the water waiting to be rescued. He flew over the man one last time as he headed for another survivor. The woman whose husband was being left behind made no protests. She sat silently, staring off into space.

The next survivor they came to was another very large man who also appeared to be unresponsive. Jim could see that the man had stripped down to his underwear. He could also see abrasions on the man's head and face. He decided to over-fly him and head for the main group of survivors. The Coast Guard helicopter was already hovering over the main group, attempting to hoist two people in a rescue basket. Jim watched in disbelief as he witnessed the cable snap and the two men suddenly plunge back into the water. Jim's first thought was that the weight of the two men must have been too great, forcing the crew to sever the cable. He continued to hover as the Coast Guard helicopter next attempted to land on the water. It seemed like an impossible task to Jim, who was in the perfect position to watch the dangerous rescue attempt. He was certain that the Coast Guard crew and their passengers were about to join the very people they were trying to rescue. Finally, the Coast Guard crew gave up on their attempts to land on the water and left the scene, much to the relief of Hartman and Rylee. Jim maneuvered toward the raft. He was about to establish a hover when he heard the Coast Guard HU-16 calling him.

“Stand off! Stand off!” came the call from the HU-16. The pilot of the HU-16 apparently wanted Jim to stay away from the large group of survivors.

Jim knew that a second Coast Guard helicopter was in the area. He had heard him on the radio earlier. There was no way Jim was going to sit on the sidelines and watch as the Coast Guard rescued people. He turned down the radio and set up a hover about fifty feet off the water. “Start picking 'em up,” he announced over the ICS.

“How many should we pick up?” Lindley asked.

“Pick 'em up until we can't hold any more,” Rylee replied.

The first two pickups were the two men who were still clinging to the rescue basket released by the Coast Guard. They then moved to
the main group of survivors. Lindley could see a man in uniform kneeling on the yellow flotation device. He lowered the sling, but it was quickly blown twenty yards downwind. Once again Lindley told Jim that they needed to be lower. Jim brought the helicopter down to twenty feet, less than half the distance of the recommended hovering altitude and only a few feet above the swells. Now Lindley could get the sling to the man in uniform. He gave a few hand signals to the crewman and got the first person into the sling. After that, the pickups went smoothly, one right after the other. Brazzell would pull the person inside and remove the rescue sling; Lindley would then lower the sling to the crewman, who would then help the next person. The survivors were brought up so quickly it was as if they were freshly caught fish being dragged aboard a fishing boat.

By this time Balsey had jumped into action and began assisting the two Navy crewmen by positioning people on the floor as they entered the helicopter. There were people sitting on the floor all along the sides of the helicopter. When there was no more space around the fuselage, people were placed wherever there was an empty spot.

Jim was doing all he could to maintain a steady hover in the howling winds. At one point he glanced down at his airspeed and read 39 knots, which meant that the winds were blowing that hard. Thirty-nine knots is equivalent to 45 mph. As difficult as the windy conditions made his task, there was one benefit: The strong winds provided additional lift and allowed him to carry more weight.

For the passengers still in the water, the windy conditions were compounded by the downwash from the rotor blades. At least one passenger sustained a facial injury from debris picked up by the swirling winds.

Eventually, they reached a point where there wasn't any more room inside the helicopter. Lindley announced over the ICS that they were full. Jim asked him to do a head count. A minute or two later, Lindley announced that they had twenty-six survivors on board.

Jim couldn't see what was going on behind him; his focus was on flying the helicopter. He assumed that they had picked up another seven or eight people. He couldn't believe that they had picked up that many survivors. “That can't be true,” he told Lindley. “We can't hold that many. Count 'em again.”

When Lindley came back with the same figure, Jim established radio contact with the HU-16. Jim's call sign was Saltspray 15. He informed the HU-16 that they had twenty-six people on board and wanted to know where he should take them. The HU-16 radioed back with instructions to proceed to St. Croix. Jim, who was enervated from spending the last hour and twenty-five minutes fighting the gusty winds, asked the HU-16 if 230 was a good heading for St. Croix.

“Saltspray 15, yes sir,” the HU-16 replied. “That's a good heading.”

Jim Rylee turned and headed for St. Croix. His only thought was to not screw up now. He knew he was overweight. He could feel it in the sluggish controls. The wind, which had helped him during the hover, was now making the overloaded helicopter difficult to handle. He climbed and increased the power, then handed over the controls to Hartman. The sooner he got to St. Croix the better.

Bill Shields and Carmond Fitzgerald arrived on scene within minutes of the Navy helicopter. Bill quickly assessed the situation. He saw the large group of survivors and the Navy helicopter. He also saw people scattered downwind of the main group. Shields knew that those being blown downwind were in the greatest jeopardy, so he flew downwind and circled back to begin his pickups.
*
There was a lot of chatter on the radios. ATC was on one frequency; the Skyvan was talking to San Juan Center, relaying communications from the HU-16; Carmond was talking to the RCC and the HU-16. Bill turned down the volume on
his radio so he could concentrate on the pickups. The only person he wanted to hear was the crewman in back working the hoist.

The HH-52A was equipped with both a rescue basket and a rescue sling. The rescue sling is the quickest way to get a person into a helicopter. Unfortunately, the rescue sling is often misused. The correct method is to back into the sling with the head and shoulders so that the sling can lock under the arms and the upper torso as the person is being lifted. Most people seeing the sling for the first time will stick their head and shoulders through the sling as if they're jumping through a hoop. This causes all of their weight to be distributed through the chest or stomach. If that person isn't in good physical shape, they will have difficulty holding that position for any length of time and will usually slip out of the sling before they reach the helicopter. For this reason, the rescue basket is the primary method used in a civilian rescue.
*

The first pickup was a dark-skinned woman who at first appeared to be unconscious. Bill hovered directly over her and saw that she was moving. They lowered the basket to her and she managed to climb aboard. As she was brought inside the helicopter, she complained of internal pain and a lack of feeling in her legs.

They proceeded upwind and picked up a second straggler, a male. This person was wearing a uniform shirt but no pants or shoes. The person they picked up was the purser, Wilfred Spencer. They then proceeded upwind from the main group to pick up a lone individual in a partially inflated life raft. Navigator Hugh Hart was the third person rescued by the Coast Guard crew.
¹

Carmond's job during the rescue was to remain in communication with the On Scene Commander and to watch out for other aircraft.
He was also monitoring their fuel situation. He informed Bill that they only had enough fuel to remain on scene for another thirty minutes before they would have to head for St. Croix.

After picking up the man in the partially inflated life raft, Bill proceeded to the main group of survivors. The first person rescued from the main group was a woman who appeared to be injured. Several people in the water had to assist her into the basket. Once she was in the helicopter, Hugh and Wilfred carried the woman to an open spot on the floor. There were now four survivors on board the helicopter. Faced with a dwindling fuel supply, Shields told the hoist operator to start picking up two at a time.

The hoist system was rated to six hundred pounds. Shields hovered north of the slide and lowered the basket into the water. The hoist operator used hand signals to indicate that he wanted two people in the rescue basket. Two very large men swam toward the basket.

Seconds later the crew chief was heard over the ICS. “We've got a problem. The hoist is jammed! It won't go up any further!” The cable had started to unravel and was now binding the hoist system.

Shields, who had had a similar cable failure before, knew that he couldn't fly back to St. Croix with the two men dangling from the bottom of the helicopter. The cable could snap and send the two men hurtling through the air. They were going to have to shear the cable. He first tried to lower the basket to the water to allow the men to jump out, but the men were confused and wouldn't leave the basket. He told the crewman in back to prepare to cut the cable.

Shearing the cable is accomplished automatically by a knife located inside the housing of the hoist system. Both the pilot and the crew chief have the ability to activate the cartridge that operates the knife. Shields deferred the decision on when to shear the cable to the crewman in back, who was in a much better position to determine when the basket was close enough to the water to make the cut. The large
swells, however, made it a difficult task. As soon as the basket appeared to be near the water, the swell would disappear and the basket would be left dangling fifteen feet above a trough. When the cable was finally sheared, the basket and its two occupants fell from a height of about ten feet. The two men clung to the basket not sure what had happened. Some of the passengers hadn't seen the helicopter crewman signal for two people and assumed that the men were being selfish. Everyone who witnessed the basket drop assumed the cable had broken due to excess weight.

With time running out, and no way of hoisting survivors into the helicopter, Shields tried a platform pickup. This is accomplished by attaching a metal platform to the door and then hovering close enough to the water so that the crew chief can assist people into the helicopter by hand. Shields made two attempts. Each time he neared the water, the swells, which were at times higher than the rotor blades, prevented him from staying long enough to make a successful pickup.
*
He finally decided that conditions were too dangerous for a platform pickup. He spotted the Navy SH-3A helicopter hovering nearby and decided to leave the scene.

Shortly after Bill Shields and Carmond Fitzgerald had departed from the Isla Grande airport, the duty officer placed a phone call to the unit's commanding officer, Charles Mayes. All of the standby crewmen had been dispatched to the scene. There was no one left to fly the second HH-52A. It was a Saturday and the duty officer was having trouble locating another crew. Charles Mayes volunteered to fly
the second helicopter himself. When he arrived at the airport, he found the Operations Officer, Jim Brawley, already inside the helicopter making preparations to depart. When Jim saw his Commanding Officer approaching, he started to move over to the co-pilot seat, which on this helicopter was the left seat. Charles Mayes signaled for him to stay seated; he then jumped into the co-pilot seat. The third crewmember to climb aboard was an electronics technician. He didn't normally go out on rescues, but he was the only one left at the airport who knew how to work the hoist system.