Coast Guard Swimmer Rescue! | Coast Guard PNW - Cape Disappointment Pacific Northwest | Full Episode

as summer turns to fall coast guard crews enter into a new season of search and rescues when a fisherman collapses an air crew rushes to the mouth of the columbia river he was bleeding from the face and frothing and he was in and out of consciousness he needed to get out of there pretty quick a boat proof from cape disappointment scours the columbia river for a fallen paddle boarder anything and everything that you see you want it to be that person you want to be the crew to save that person's life and rescuers are taken to the edge of a cliff as a fallen climber clings for life you've got to really execute that perfectly otherwise you could kill somebody high peaks and tumultuous waters make cape disappointment and the pacific northwest one of the most hazardous environments in north america at the heart of it all is the columbia river bar this deadly area has taken countless vessels and claimed hundreds of lives in the air and on the sea brave men and women of the u.s coast guard risk their own safety so that others may live in a place known as the graveyard of the [Music] pacific coast guard graze harbor fishing vessel jackpot it's not a block break and a man got hit in the head he's unconscious leading from the nose he says no pulse he's not breathing can you please send lieutenant commander josh nelson mh-60t pilot air station astoria the information we received is that about 25 miles off of grace harbor about 70 miles north of air station astoria fishing vessel jackpot had a crew member get hit in the head with a tackle block coast guard six zero one three at air just got off the phone with the flight surgeon he recommends medevac to a trauma unit which would be a manual in portland i pulled 100 torque and said about 145 knots we're getting it there as soon as we can you think of it like an ambulance going with its sirens on that's the mode we're in right now captain of the helicopter is inbound towards you and they are talking like 20 minutes away my name is ast ii chris fisher aviation survival technician here at air station astoria the patient is in and out of consciousness his name is matthew sector one three good copy matthews do you have a mobile pleasure with you final mobilization they did tell us that he was you know in and out of consciousness he got hit in the back of the head with a heavy object so i knew that we needed to immobilize the spine and get him to a trauma center quickly [Music] open area for us as clear as possible we've got a place in the stern on the starboard side all cleared out lieutenant commander jim harkins engineering officer air station astoria we don't want to blow stuff overboard there's nothing that we want to get caught up in the rotor wash or worry about wires that are hanging down fishing lines that are hanging down ropes that are hanging down jackpots that big boom that you have in the center is there a way you can push that one way or the other no sir i'm sorry i can't it is welded in place that was really the main concern was that center mass because it was kind of in the way of the hoisting what we're area the only concern that i had was they had some rigging that was half in the water so that's always a real big concern of mine when i'm going down to a boat i don't want to get stuck in a in a net like a fish ready for [Music] 100 when i was in the doorway getting ready to go down it definitely is real at that point and you definitely don't want to fail we had a big boom sticking off the back of this boat it's definitely pretty close to the helicopter so as i went down we needed the crew member to pull me in i just kind of signaled him down at the bottom you know hand over hand pull pull pull and he started to pull me in no problem strong fella and i got onto the back of the deck safely a typical scenario for us is to hoist the swimmer down and then we'll get him the litter there's outside going that way we just have one hoisting evolution then we disconnect and give him some time and give him some room to work oh the guy was laying there on the deck the whole time huh yeah he was laying pretty much right where he got struck by the object he was bleeding from the face and frothing he was definitely in a lot of pain and he was in and out of consciousness i noticed that he did have three to four inch laceration in the back of his head it was one of the gnarlier cuts i've seen and i knew that he needed to get out of there pretty quick so i'm gonna go ahead swivel one three i'm putting him in the litter roger moving in for the pickup you know the crewmen on deck really were very eager to help they were good mariners very professional and very grateful that we were there and that's what we're here for is just to help those men out when they're out making a living for their families and you know an accident happens [Music] but it's clear the deck and the rails better move back when i put a patient in a litter and i send them back up to the helicopter that's definitely a moment that you worry because you're not with your patient so if they code or stop breathing or anything happens you can't provide supportive care at that time it's just how it has to be but blair my flight mechanic is great at what he does so i just wait patiently at that point it's a little bit difficult for our flight mech blair to maneuver the litter in the way that it comes easily into the cabin actually one of your camera man had to help him out a little bit all right later got him in the cabin smoothly and quickly and got me up into the cabin and it was it was awesome and jackpot jackpot rescue helicopter we'll take good care of your shipmates and uh we're heading down to emmanuel down on portland and drop them out there at the trauma unit okay i'll tell his family thank you very much you guys did a hell of a job as soon as i got up in the helicopter my immediate thought was to provide supportive care to my patient keep him warm he was really cold i was continually checking his vitals making sure that he was stable checking his pupils making sure that he wasn't deteriorating just doing everything i can as an emt this guy does have a legitimate head trauma i want to definitely get him to the level of care that he needs and on my level of consciousness he has a four inch laceration deep laceration on the back of his head he is finally immobilized at this time we will be at emmanuel at 1615 zulu we had orders to take him to emmanuel trauma center in portland so we flew from the boat to the mouth of the river and then up the columbia river [Applause] pad right there at about one o'clock when we finally got to emmanuel trauma center there was several people outside waiting for us they helped us take the survivor out of the helicopter and put him on a gurney and then we wheeled him inside and we made our way to their trauma room and then passed him over to a trauma doctor it's always good to give your patient off to a higher level of care especially still breathing still with the pulse you just hope that that he's going to make it i went to the coast guard academy because i wanted to fly and i fell in love with the coast guard's mission our job is to go out there and save lives from the command center the flight surgeon the air crew and the trauma units on the ground everything went the way it's supposed to it did so because we work well as a team and we train for it [Music] we just received a call that a paddleboarder disappeared they couldn't see the board they couldn't see him was he on his board or just swimming okay [Music] someone hanging off a cliff a hundred feet up is the peak of the danger spectrum [Music] there's don't get down yourself you know maybe do something wrong brush it off and keep going this is my pre-wreck all right you got a baby ast3 christopher austin us coast guard rescue swimmer today we're going to be flying up to gray's harbor we're gonna go do just some standard training it's gonna be rashad's upgrade check basically so what we're gonna do is make sure that rashad knows what kind of deployment to do for what kind of scenario what's gonna be the best way that we can get somebody home safe you get door speeder shots my name is rashad gibson i'm the amt3 e4 here at sector columbia river i'm just ready to be a flight mech my ultimate goal is just to be able to stay on duty because that's what everybody wants to do that's the bread and butter of the job i've been working to get there for probably about two years now this is gonna hit us with the scenario got a call from vessel taking our water about 50 miles off tour one of the crew members was hurt and he doesn't know the extent of his injuries all right what are you thinking uh what i'd probably do is uh swimmer down see what we need to uh bring him up with whether it's uh the basket if he's still ambulatory or the winner if he uh can't move all right cool christie good with that yes they're throwing scenarios at me so i just have to be prepared and let's just revert back to the training that i learned make sure i'm ready to go they put everybody through their paces you do rescue swimmer work they just want to make sure you're up to a standard level so you can perform with any crew that you get set up all right rashad and i we're going to be a team i can't get down there without him a lot of times they can't pick up people without a swimmer and today was really about rashad learning how to work with a swimmer and for me to make sure that this guy doesn't just you know hit all the minimums but that he can do them really well all right what do you got on that one once i'm hoping that i get the knot from the guys that are around me because ultimately i work with those guys and uh if they say i'm good to go then i feel pretty confident in that you just really glided right on top of the boat there that was honestly probably the best deployment i've ever had definitely huge improvement from first time so now i just have to be taken to the cliff we'll do some work there wheel is locked parking set lower console story has kind of a different terrain than most places you've got to be able to do mountain work but after that ready to stand duty [Music] yo drop the jet dock one piw uh overturned wrap washington side of the bridge still pretty good we're uh waiting for updated information don't know aids don't know if they're wearing a life jacket don't have any of that info just in route right now do you know if that person fell off the bridge or they came from a [Music] wesley hall mk2 station cave disappointment what we originally heard was there's a raft in the water on the washington side in route we found out that it's a paddle boarder in the water have you seen that guy before yeah so i've never seen this guy wear a life jacket conditions on the columbia river are extremely hazardous with the chop and the currents we have around here and then when you're on a paddle board unless you're an excellent paddle boarder it's just that much more challenging go over and try talking to this boat that's that's the safety boat it looks like you guys calling the paddle boarder was he on his board or just swimming okay okay so when we arrived on scene we met the reporting source it was a safety boat for the construction that's happening on the columbia river bridge they said they saw a guy on a paddle board standing up paddling around and uh that he had disappeared you want to calculate for certain drifts yep this one dropped adam drop dad the first thing we did on scene was drop datum or a floating buoy and basically what that does for us is it simulates a person being in the water we get our set and drift and we'll execute our search from from there are you on scene half an hour since last sighting we're determining for setting drift right 33 seconds we just did search patterns while we were still coordinating with the sheriff and sector and the hilo was right above we had all of our assets out and operating it was pretty hectic hey you see that black thing got something black [Music] forward [Music] so we just received a call that a paddleboarder disappeared they couldn't see the board they couldn't see him wasn't sure if he was wearing a life jacket if he had any other flotation with him did he drown did he swim for sure oh i got something black right here got some black forward four beam hey you see that black thing [Music] [Music] dead bird sorry i kind of look like here anytime you're searching your mind will tend to play tricks on you anything and everything that you see you want it to be that person you want to be the crew to save that person's life it looks like the helicopters made multiple passes from north and south side of the river doing a barrier search we've gone well beyond where this person would have drifted to so we're going to be heading back towards the shoreline to see if we can contact anybody that possibly may have had a visual of somebody [Music] hey guys have you guys noticed the paddle boarders going anywhere around here recently no nobody on a paddle board throughout our search we uh asked people if that they had seen the paddle board or go out that day we're looking for somebody in the water by the bridge kevin have you seen any paddle boarders today someone else has had to have seen him yep [Music] all right thank you each mariner expressed a great deal of concern for the fact that the paddleboarder had fallen off his board and was in the river this boat this big blue tug is always here hop off courtside and then and go talk to them would you roger that columbia river it's a dangerous river it makes us feel good that you have a community that feels very very eager to help someone who could be in need on their river [Music] yeah yeah yeah we saw him today okay lunch is right here he knows what he's doing [Music] we found out that uh the guy was the triathlete he does this twice a week when it's blowing that way he goes that way and he takes the taxi back to his car further questioning we found out he union paddles down to east end and takes the cab back what did they say he paddles normally from here to east end catches a cab back how many cab companies are in i would pass that second so at that point we were able to contact sector and actually have them call the cab company if you guys see him make sure you call the commission okay thank you very much after sector had contacted some cab companies they called back to let us know what they found out yeah okay hey thank you look at youtube bye they picked him up 1645. yep sector confirmed that this paddle boarder was picked up by the cab company and brought back to his vehicle we never actually saw who we were out there to help finding out though that this guy was safe is a great relief you kind of want to be mad at him because you're out there all stressed out you're taking salt spray in the face you're soaking wet but at the same time you can just chalk it up till you found the guy because he did even if you didn't directly pull him out of the water i still think it's a victory in my book my name is patrick corcoran and i live in astoria oregon i was taking advantage of the northwesterly winds that are really common here and go stand up paddle boarding on the columbia river it can be quite difficult especially on that day and you take spills every once in a while i was coming back as i do on it with a taxi and i noticed the helicopter flying around and i mentioned that maybe the maritime museum was having some sort of an event that's the extent i thought of it until the next day when i opened up the daily historian and read the article about coast guard calls off search for paddle boarder in distress the columbia river is a very serious place a very serious river with very changing conditions people who go out on it need to accept that responsibility and be prepared the coast guard is an amazing resource here at the mouth of the columbia they are life savers we all respect them especially me someday i might need them and i'm really glad the coast guard is there five minutes holy cow just knowing that there's going to be an elderly gentleman 87. it's a little tense letter is player of the deck when the helicopter came over and all the wind was coming down he started to kind of freak out [Music] okay real quick medevac right off to the maquette rob will be in the right seat i'll be in the left seat ed you'll be in background on the show with uh chris any questions no sir awesome lieutenant commander dan leary aircraft commander for the 6035 jayhawk we have the medevac to go take an 87 year old man that's had a heart attack or a stroke i weren't exactly sure off a cruise ship 15 miles away beautiful night out a great opportunity for rob as a new pilot to get some experience sitting in the right seat so put him in the right seat and we're ready to go prosecute the mission rescue swimmer for the us coast guard my name is christopher austin we did actually get to see the cruise ship leaving port this afternoon i remember actually looking at it and making comments about how regular it is for us to do medevacs off of cruise ships it is somewhat of a short transit it's 25 miles but for us i mean that's only a matter of minutes maybe 10 minutes to get out there coast guard rescue helicopter rescue helicopter this is the best place for us yeah the bow looks good all right i'm gonna come down to the approach yep just walk yourself up the side of the boat lieutenant rob mccabe helicopter pilot here at air station astoria your first operational voice mission oh this is a perfect one for it okay so let's go even though i've practiced this a hundred times to hover right next to a big cruise ship i mean you still have the nerves kind of going summer is going down i felt my limbs tightening up and a little more anxiety than just a normal hoist just knowing that there's going to be an elderly gentleman getting in the basket or litter and consumer is on deck okay clear to move easy back and left chris has to go find the patient on the ship confer with the ship's doctor discuss how we want to move this patient 60356035 rescue summer the advice patient is not ambulatory at this time so we're going to call for a litter down here over that okay it looks like a trail on delivery of the litter when they brought them down from the er i took a look at them tried to figure out if there's any way at all we could do a basket because i know how uncomfortable it is to be inside that litter but he told me that he was worried about his back and litter is going down [Music] this is great thanks for letting me take it it's a good training yeah this was a perfect case for rob this was a very big ship uh with a big hoisting platform and the next case might be a fishing vessel and then the next case after that might be a person in the water a person on the cliff where the the target just keeps getting smaller and smaller and his hoisting reference is diminished and he's just got to get better and better and he will these are coming out now looks like they're setting up in the same spot three five [Music] [Applause] [Music] when the helicopter came over and all the wind was coming down he started to kind of freak out going down so i had the guy that was helping me on deck just put his hands on the patient center is clear of the deck whole position litter is halfway in the cabin rob did a great job keeping the aircraft nice and steady uh while we did the litter hoist 87 year old man's a little bit nervous being laid down on his back strapped into a litter and then hoisted 200 feet in the air letter is in the side cabin okay he's ready for the bear the hook is on deck i prepare to take the load taking a load swimmer is clear of the deck and swimmer is below cabin bringing summer inside cabin and complete roger all right nice job guys my main concern was just make sure that he had a good secure airway he had oxygen and then you know just manage the patient the whole rest of the flight back at one point i was actually going to to get his pulse and he just grabbed onto my hand you know that's where he wants me to be that's what's going to make him feel better for the rest of the fight i just kind of stayed right there ready for approach so when we arrived back we uh handed off the patient to the local ems and uh pass off all the information that we had about him and sent him on his way it feels good to help someone out i'm glad we could get this guy to a higher level of care in a safe way [Music] after landing it is kind of like a little weight off the shoulders you know felt good to be able to relax and know that it was a successful evolution was that your first one first real voice yeah congratulations [Music] sector 46013 we are on decks turning up at this time about to go on a signed mission to north head lighthouse for vertical surface training amt3 rashad gibson this flight is the final phase in our flightmax syllabus it's uh getting cliff qualified which is allowing us to be able to rescue anybody that we need to off a cliff right now we're going to go to the training grounds of north head lighthouse we have a couple dummies out there that we use to practice our rescues so thinking about making sure i do everything properly i'll do green jumping first start from the left-hand side and come up and get them right do that ty i'd like to do the first one for rashad and josh i don't know where i'm at air station astoria for today's evolutions we will lower the rescue swimmer high cancel to this left side rescue texas complete ready one direct deployment to the vertical surface of the swimmer to the right try that again get it out yeah ready for one direct deployment of swimmer to vertical surface better boom is going outside the door for low check and let's take complete swimmers on his way down the pacific northwest air stations all require their flight mechanics to have completed the vertical surface syllabus so they can do their inland star cases which are quite common in the pacific northwest due to all the hiking trails it's really fun and it's kind of difficult to tell the signals that he's giving me the todd's doing a really good job of making his movements really exaggerated so i can figure out exactly what he wants he's good on the cliff and then he's gonna end up on his back i don't know how that happened but i think i might have missed you i thought you were asking for more cable yeah that was the only thing okay but that was good i thought it was good that was good speed coming down that was perfect to simulate something more realistic the next evolution we recovered the swimmer and air taxied over to the beach to simulate to a waiting rescue party that would be on the beach as we're moving away from the cliff and moving down i'm paying in the cable to keep him at an acceptable level but by the time we got to the beach he was still a little bit low didn't go in the water didn't get wet but i did end up dragging him across the sand so he had a nice fun ride it's good seeing that now i know what to watch for what to look for and uh hopefully this experience will help me in the future just glad that it's over i'm glad to finally be a flight mechanic and be doing what i joined the coast guard to do when i'm sitting in the door and i'm about to go out of the aircraft for a vertical surface i'm thinking you can't mess up the voice rogers you really want to make sure you're doing everything right to bring the survivor home safely you've got to really execute that perfectly [Music] that's matthew from canada beach fire we have dispatched the high angle rescue team the north end of cannon beach is chapman point for a female stuck 40 feet up off the cliffs on the south side over the water everybody that's on the point is saying it's gonna need to be a coast guard [Music] rescue all right just run over this again there's a young lady on a vertical surface estimated to be 150 feet up said vertical surface about 50 feet below a tree line down on the north end of canada beach so we'll get on scene we'll do a conservative look from the outside in find her see what's going on don't come up with a plan from there quick okay let's do it i'm daniel castle an mh-60 pilot at sector columbia river we were just on standby and one of the watch standers came in and said that they just received a call of a young lady on a cliff so we're flying down to the north end of cannon beach it's about a 15-minute flight and you said area is clear clear ready for takeoff ready for takeoff we average about three to five cliff rescues per year it's normally hikers and outdoorsmen someone hanging off a cliff 100 feet up with no safety equipment is you know obviously the peak of the danger spectrum so we want to get going and get down there as soon as we can [Music] so we're now bombing down the beach we're at 350 feet and it looks like this altitude we should at least be able to get around this head you can already see the lighthouse from here we're not really sure what the weather will be in route just because tillamook head is about halfway down and it creates some interesting weather in that area sometimes we have lower cloud ceilings or different winds there's cancer beach i think you can see haystack out there i feel like it's up on that beach in there somewhere [Music] we have her right there amt3 rashad gibson qualified flight back here at sector columbia river she had six or eight inches maybe of just a place to stand so her feet were kind of uh to the side and she was just hugging the rock trying to figure out a way to have a safer asset but it looks like we're the only asset that's going to be able to get her ast-2 chris fisher rescue swimmer air station astoria first things i was thinking about was if we do blow her around with the rotor wash which is hurricane force winds directly below the aircraft that we would push her down onto the rocks and ground below crowd party is 6013. go ahead we're making press to go and invoice the individual we just wanted to make sure you all didn't think that maybe we were the wrong asset or that there was a better idea of how to get this individual over knowing the amount of risk that we bring to the table when we're hovering directly over someone on a cliff we wanted to confirm we were the best asset for the mission rescue team cannot do the rescue at this time and are not set up to do the rescue would prefer you guys do it sweet the high angle rescue team were physically unable to recover her from the cliff essentially we were the only option left let's talk about this if i start to the left just below her just anywhere down there and then we'll work our way up underneath her and then just direct right up to her how far do you want to come left of her it doesn't matter man i can walk this whole cliff what i need you to do though is i need you to get me right underneath her and then keep the helicopter plumb as you can right because if she doesn't lift i want her to fall towards you so that at least i have an opportunity to grab her whenever we make an operational hoist especially to a cliff i want to make sure that the rescue swimmer is going to be comfortable wherever i put him so i talked to the swimmer and just figured out the best way to place him on the cliff and then the route he would take to come beneath the survivor and get the rescue all right you want to update the ground party let them know we're going to come in and do this voice ground party coast guard helicopter 6013 holy hoisting here shortly how copy good copy oh that's the uh triangle rescue team now all right so nobody has any questions okay no questions when i'm sitting in the door and i'm about to go out of the aircraft for a vertical surface i'm thinking you can't mess up you know you've got to really execute that perfectly and otherwise you could kill somebody [Music] rashad begins to lower the swimmer down and at that point i don't have reference with where the survivor or the swimmer are easy right right the flight mechanic is just telling me forward back left right up down position the rescue swimmer easy forward and swivel has good positive contact one foot of movement in an aircraft could mean that i drag up past my survivor or one foot down means i could just tumble back knock them off the side of the cliff we got launched on a person that's holding onto a cliff about 50 feet below the top of the cliff and about 150 feet off the rocks and ground below you can't mess up you know you've got to really execute that perfectly right one foot of movement in an aircraft could mean that i drag up past my survivor or one foot down means i could just tumble back knock them off the side of the cliff [Music] it blows my mind how good mr cathol was able to hold a hover in that area in that difficult of an evolution it was just rock steady so he has positive contact with positive contact with the survivor when i made contact with the survivor on the cliff i noticed that she was cold i was able to talk to her and let her know just to continue to keep holding on the way she was and i was going to get her out of there as soon as i could [Music] [Music] survivor ultimately her safety is paramount so you want to make sure you get her in securely [Music] get her set up in a seat belt and then allow the swimmer to assess the situation chris give me give me what you got i i just got a really cool patient okay put them down so we can get her to ems okay once we had the survivor back up in the aircraft we decided to move her over to the beach we knew that we had some emergency medical services there and the cannon beach fire rescue command post cleared out she took off and uh headed towards her family i don't blame her she was definitely very stressed out and had just been clinging to a cliff for her life and you know she was very motivated to go see your parents big wrapped up hugs he's got to be happy that was a sketchy place he's okay chris on his way back he's going for that guardian run oh [Music] and we're ready for takeoff and coming up [Music] it definitely was a dangerous situation it uh it could have been a dangerous situation but our pilots are just top notch great job up forward rashad incredible thanks again for uh for another successful bringing me jose saved my life man okay you're amazing i just got qualified so i'm lucky to have had the training right before this this cliff rescue is that the helicopter that's so cool i'm natalie i'm here at the coast guard air station in astoria and i'm about to meet the crew and rescued me from a cliff and i'm so excited very nice to meet you nice to meet you too hi i'm chris i'm a hugger [Music] you guys are heroes yeah you're right on i was very scared a scale one to ten i was probably 11. when i saw the helicopter i was like oh somebody's here finally to save me i'm rescued i gotta ask how did you find yourself there you climbed down from the top you were just like playing around on the top or what happened oh we were uh there was a group of us and we were climbing up oh oh and i fell 30 feet then i got on this place that like my feet i was staying on dirt oh no i was holding for dear life yeah i'm glad it turned out well thank you so much all of you guys you guys mean the world to me glad we can help makes it worth it even though they are a professional it's still a risk like anything can go wrong but nothing went wrong we can show you around if you want yeah let's go take a look i just met the crew it was amazing i loved it and then we went into the helicopter that i was in it was an experience that i will never forget and it was it's amazing now let's jump out and go running yeah yeah i would say the coast guards are heroes they do save people and it's dangerous they're putting their life to a risk and i loved meeting the crew well thank you

Channel: DangerTV

Views: 200,135

Keywords: coast guard swimmer, coast guard swimmer rescue, coast guard pnw, coast guard cape disappointment, coast guard pacific northwest, coast guard cape disappointment pacific northwest, coast guard cape disappointment full episode, coast guard cape disappointment tv show, us coast guard, us coast guard pacific northwest, united states coast guard, united states coast guard pacific northwest, danger, dangertv, danger tv, Danger, DangerTV, Danger TV, dangertv coast guard series, coast, rescue

Id: k8ufoKBPOOg

Length: 42min 33sec (2553 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 07 2020