Ship Wreck! | Coast Guard Alaska | Full Episode

in the icy depths of the Gulf of Alaska the Coast Guard confronts gale force winds and massive waves I wouldn't wanted to be on that boat you could tell they didn't want to be there either on barometer mountain a helicopter braves rough terrain to rescue an injured hiker flying in the mountains is not something the Coast Guard typically does that's unfamiliar territory and through a murky storm a crew struggles to breathe life into a dying man we had a patient who is not breathing and he is short died if nothing happens the vast Alaskan wilderness a place where beauty is cloaked by danger here every day 350 highly trained men and women risk their lives to save others America's deadliest waters are protected by Coast Guard Alaska [Music] [Music] Antti 3 brandon age 65 mechanic so is about quarter till 10 we were settling down for the night getting ready to go to bed and phone rang and it was a search and rescue case for a vessel that lost steering we knew the general position and that they were still making way but how many persons might be on board the vessel was unknown all right on three one two three lady has powers that everything green we didn't have a good report on on-scene weather from my understanding I don't believe the captain had real good communications he gave out a mayday over channel 16 and then didn't have good communications after that so not a whole lot of information was able to get passed we were told it was over an hour there was an island edit berth the beach right whether it drifted towards it be listen to Jason Evans at UF weapons officer h-60 pilot at Air Station Kodiak the closely got towards kayak Island the worse the weather got the wind's really picked up it was raining about two miles biz and maybe three hundred foot ceilings so we're approaching the south tip of kayak Island and we're making attempts to contact the vessel on channel 16 [Music] the probably got their balance of the season and it's friggin they get booked except what do you [Music] [Applause] [Music] we got on scene with the coordinates we were given his rudder was stuck in a fixed position and so he was making something like three knots into a heavy current and into 2015 alert every now he would take a really hard roll in his rigging would get dipped into the season going in the water right here he was in the trough for the most part heading parallel with waves we can I get a steering go we don't know what to do I'm just trying to keep us being turned over right now oh my god [Music] darker athleisure get worse the captain the vessel you could tell over the radio is pretty frantic and pretty exhausted and just getting beat up in 20-foot seas and he was asking us for help with suggestions what he could do with his vessel we all kind of knew the situation was pretty bad as deteriorating so we were drawing closer and closer to realizing that we were gonna have to hoist the weather continue Tajiri ceilings were coming down wave action was looking pretty good and the boat was definitely rocking the side-to-side pretty good with a vessel swinging to and fro the tall mast and the rigging swinging both sides and all their gear on deck VW Bug we're very concerned that's right I was wondering if we could just get some eyes on this boat and check out the rigging you know if it's even a viable hoisting platform going down the back of the neck yeah it's got that big boom right down the center of it right 1960 or four four on your current course speed we estimated the vessel is going to beat at about 12 pounds we're really concerned that they were going to run ashore damage the hull of the vessel and gonna sink extremely life-threatening situation it looks like we're gonna have to extract you guys from the vessel so after talking to the captain we made the decision to do a direct employment the rest is from her to the port Stern does everybody feel comfortable with that I don't bring the swapper to the door get my trail line ready everybody right when we pulled into a hover and we're looking at the boat we all knew that it would be very challenging to do a hoist to that boat the way they were pitching and you know rocking and rolling I wouldn't wanted to be on that boat you could tell they didn't want to be there either and macelli's complete ready for direct employment versus on merit support stern a st. Joseph doctor checks Walker Roger checking swimmer you know we got a boat underway we lower down a trail line on deck right attach it to the hook and they have crew members that contend it they can kind of reel me in go check completed tours go down lower halfway down got over the boat he was halfway down vessel took a really hard roll back and forth look at the boat rock the mast came really close to just knocking me off into oblivion I'm on the hook like it sucks this is this is who's hot this is bad I hope you know they can get me down there and vessels really hard aborting the hoist we decided to do Plan B Plan B was to have each crewmember one at a time jump into the ocean st. Joseph's is secured for four on sixteen we want your guys the slowly safety work their way back to the port Stern and at that point jump off and I will move our swimmer and recover these guys one at a time I'll copy on that so we finally settled on one guy makes his way out to the stern the one guys going to keep eyes on them right from the pilothouse and then the guy that makes his way out to the stern and jumps overboard and into the Gulf of Alaska at 1:30 in the morning all right looks like the first crew member is working his way to the port Stern looks like he's having a hard time making across the deck while brawling so we moved in position and we were uncomfortable with having the swimmer disconnect from the cable because of the sea state my 20 to 30 foot seas it's nighttime now we're talking 1 o'clock in the morning it's raining I can't see the horizon I bring rod outside the door we communicate over the radio or the fisherman or survivor to jump into the water [Music] [Music] look like the first crew member is working his way to the port Stern so we got a call approximately 9:30 9:45 I said as a fishing vessel without steering and is located on the northeast side of kayak Island so we discussed there's a crew and decided the best course of action would be to have them jump in the water one at a time in their survival suits and we pick them up yeah it really is I'm guessing twenties occasional 30s that's one serous direct deployment I stay on the cable and use what we call the Kwik shop which is basically just I sling with a friction keeper on it you got it over your arm grab grab the survivors arm hopefully they're like hey they reach out you can grab that arm take it off my shoulder over their head under the other arm boom ready to go quick can be done in you know 10 seconds don't burn survivor just off that cabin door bring a torch I rented a cabin all five boys went the same way it was a direct deployment of the swimmer moved off so we didn't beat him up with rotor wash each choice took approximately five minutes load check complete swimmers going down boomers go down we lower the swimmer to the survivor it could take upwards of a minutes two minutes for the swimmer to rig the survivor with a quick strap and then us to safely move back in over them and get plum and get into a good enough position to pull them up out of the water get them into the cabin and then Rob would be back in the door ready to go for the next one bring him up just outside the cabin door bringing the swimmer and survivor inside the cabin and hoist complete hunter great work it was really a good feeling to know that we had them all in the helo all five and luckily we had you know great pilots and great crew great flight mechanic they flew us back you know in pretty gnarly nasty you know conditions for flying and some of the worst back to the hospital got us back there safe [Music] we're able to get all five people off the boat successfully without incident we felt great everybody felt really accomplished it was a great night to go out and really bad weather conditions and bad sea stay and be able to save five people [Music] a couple Duty days later we went out on a flight over the fishing vessel had washed up on shore we got out there in the same crew that we hoisted we're out there making salvage efforts it's a really good feeling to be able to talk to the gentleman that you had hoisted a couple days ago you see that there there all right there they're back on their feet they're immediately taking care of business trying to see what they can do with their both you got the great man up above this life I mean once it is best there was nasty if that fast the captain expressed his sincere gratitude that we were able to be there and and he felt that if we hadn't been there that night that the boat went out rolled over and who knows what would happen to him and his crew [Music] just shocked and elect Enderman we were driving along everything was going fine or enjoying the brand new boat we spent so much time building and seas were a bit rough and all of a sudden we had no steering an alarm went off the reality was is this is a dire situation wave after wave their seconds in between it was traumatic it's abandoned ship or give up life but we're all here and I guess is a win [Music] [Music] you have a position there on the top of the mountain the fire department guide that is a request that you pick up the individual her mom gonna do firefighters I got a couple phone calls saying that there was a 15 year old girl who had a possible broken leg broken ankle on top of barometer that barometers are now in just behind the air station approximately 2,500 feet tall the Coast Guard Fire Department sent to their personnel to evaluate the patient and determine what the best course of action was go ahead granted I don't know their condition any other than that she could not walk and that the fire department did want us to go up there and pick her up barometers gray steep and slip and slide quite a bit and it'd be very very tough to carry somebody down there even for two you know strong individuals it is real precious does the approach from the west over the top of the ridge line stay on the good side about all right I want 180 here and take a look at the area sounds good brother I'm not showing it Wayne right now but do you see her she at the top of the trail right there yeah yeah we want them to move a little bit flying in the mountains is not something the Coast Guard typically does on a daily basis were comfortable over the water we're comfortable around ships but into the mountains it's that's unfamiliar territory we should just be over it the performance of the aircraft decreases as you climb up in altitude as the tricky landing zone we're asking ourselves do we have a place to land do we have enough power to pull into a hover there's a flat spot on the west side of them let me know when the wheels touched one at a time we are responding to a patient in respiratory distress he is critically ill all right got a call if there's a hiker on Mount barometer that it injures themselves in the on the climb possibly broken a leg I want 180 here and take a look at the area about the good brother the Coast Guard Fire Department here at Air Station Kodiak sent two of their folks up Mount barometer to evaluate the patient deep energy at the top of the trail right there yeah once we're at the summit of barometer mountain were assessing the wind condition the laps around the top of barometer is given the entire crew a real good idea of the hazards up there we're asking ourselves do we have a place to land do we have enough power to pull into a hover and what are the hazards not only for us but also for the folks on the ground there's a flash button on the web side of them I concur I saw that you in any kind of mountain flying or mountain rescue situation the performance of the aircraft generally decreases as you climb up in altitude the blades of the helicopter they like dense air and as you climb up that air density decreases to the point that you might not have enough power to maintain a stable hover Josh there's a pound on the north side [Music] took a lot of views looked at it from every angle that we couldn't decided that we could in fact land we picked a spot that looked like it was fairly flat and didn't have anything sticking up that would be a hazard the tricky landing zone looking at the exact spot there's a rock outcropping and then there's a high point that I can line the wheels up on after we had decided that we were gonna land in that we had a wedded area that we looked that looked good we came in real slow I was laying on my belly with my head out the door trying to see as much as I could and counting the aircraft in just nice and slow the wheels got real close to the ground it was real obvious where the sweet spot was we got all wheels on all the wheels drive right in good spot clear come down Roger then I'm gonna take the backboard with me and if I don't need it I just bring it back [Applause] it wasn't as bad as what we were initially called out for she hadn't broken her legs she just kind of sprained her ankle but it was bad enough to where they weren't gonna be able to hike her down so I don't think it's gonna be necessary for us she looked a little scared I kind of had a feeling that the girl had never been on a helicopter before we can just get staged we came back in picked up the rest of swimmer of the patient patients mother as well as the two firefighters that hiked up barometer attest to some of the skills that I've only slightly mastered at this point rough area landing is something that we do quite often but not at altitude like that not where your landing area is so particular if we had been two feet to the right or two feet to the left it wouldn't have been possible to pull off [Music] [Music] the weather was terrific for it I didn't freeze so that was nice and I got to wear the dry suit for the first time on a sour case that's pretty cool good job once we landed I was able to finally meet the two firefighters who went up the hill I've got a lot of respect for the what the Coast Guard Fire Department is doing here great experience everybody involved I think we all enjoy doing something a little bit different than a normal water rescue we got a 29 year old female it's apparently suffering a stroke like symptoms Roger I've had seizure cases before but the look of fear on her face when she was she was having the seizure it's just only gonna stick in my mind [Music] [Music] aviation electronics technician Joshua Harris Brad at the Stoney Creek Ranch in Kodiak we're slated for to range days a week between weather maintenance of the aircraft and deployments that are drawing us in different directions we don't usually get to make as many range days as we would like to so it's nice to have days like this okay let's go weapon safety rules Josh give me all four from please treat every weapon as if it were loaded always maintain proper motor control keep finger off the trigger until on target ready to shoot and know your target and what is beyond it but we're ready to go back here whatever you are my name's Gunner's Mate third-class max Richardson I'll be behind the berm in what we call the putz back there at the end of the range protected by a concrete wall so I'm not getting shot at but I'm holding the target on a stick basically and moving back and forth you know to make a moving target shooters ready line is ready line is hot shooter ready [Music] how'd we do on that one got four hits okay four movers left for two left two rights we also shot movers [Music] right shooter there and safety weapon okay I got four hits after that we went into positional if the positions are standing ten shots from 100 yards sitting ten shots from 200 yards that's fire and then ten shots from 300 yards in 60 seconds from the prone position and then 20 shots within 20 minutes from 300 yards in a prone position [Music] the toughest part for a prosthetic range days that's probably the stress fires shooter ready get ready and begin the stress fires we do to simulate obviously the adrenaline and moving around in the cabin and the adrenaline rush of the mission itself so we try to simulate that by doing things like push-ups sprints and just getting you out of your comfort zone shooter stand by three two one being able to do this mission on Kodiak is especially cool you know right now I'm surrounded by mountains I've got eagles flying behind me and in front of me so being able to do this mission anywhere is awesome being able to do it on Kodiak is just a little bit cooler [Music] greater we've got a 28 to 29 year old female possibly a stroke system off of a fog nack Island if you look where little raspberry is this place is actually off some small tiny Russian village called Moscone or ESCA Bay we got a 28 to 29 year old female apparently suffering a stroke like symptoms so they requested us to launch a 60 should take about 25 minutes to get over there the conditions for this mission we're looking at low visibility with fog mist rain very challenging conditions to say the least normally we wouldn't fly on this but when it comes to saving a life for instance this mission right here this is why we do it 25 minutes guys cider another my sir almost 49 and hold on Roger today commander Tom combs on my pot at Air Station Kodiak any time you have to fly in a Alaska storm it's big deal We certainly have set ourselves up for success here in Kodiak but it's still not something that we want to take with a grain of salt sector zero six requests to know if we know the patient is ambulatory are they able to walk over sir we're gonna have to start getting a little ready ast one she darn it when the rescue swimmers Kodiak about eight minutes out from getting on scene we found out that the patient was not ambulatory she wasn't walking around so we needed to unfold our litter as we got closer I heard it was a seizure so my mindset changed to deal with that that could be the bay up into the right pick your waster home if you want yeah there's a dirt spot right in front of them you see yeah I see the four-wheelers there yeah ready for broke it was a road to the confined area so we set up our approach downwind and we just lose landing into the spine area tail is clear the trees [Music] down tales arktech that feeds on deck gratefully it's off deck my name's Nick Davenport I'm an AMT - at Air Station Kodiak we got down on the ground and the swimmer and I grabbed the litter [Music] I'm down a helicopter climbed a little hill probably a quarter-mile [Music] got on scene with the medevac patient and she wasn't looking too good we ended up getting her to the litter no problem strapping her in on their way back to the helicopter carrying her back in the field it was kind of a downward grade I was pretty bumpy very wet so we had to mark our way carefully back to the helicopter she didn't speak English and the husband wanted to go along basically to be with his wife but also to help us with anything we might need to translate talk to the pilots real quick they said it was not a problem if we had space that's not unusual for a loved one or a spouse to want to come with patient and we we try to accommodate whenever possible so I had no problem with it it'd be ok and they came onboard sector Anchorage goes to rescue six through zero six airborne in route her pulse is weak but rapid I can't get a good you know with the helicopter but I could definitely feel it there it was about a half hour transit back home and she was having seizures about every every ten minutes or so her history going all over the place and her pulse rates going all over the place respiratory rate is 19 and the heart rates off the territory and Harvick a couple times in the aircraft ended up having seizures and stopped breathing for about three to four seconds each time she started breathing again so it's says a relief it was a pretty stressful flight the entire time the look of fear on her face when she was she was having a seizure it's just only gonna stick in my mind still conscious but she just fainted at him try to figure out before he sat down I always put that I think we should get her out as possible like to do this Chris for you for us ready for approach [Music] [Applause] once the ambulance got a lot closer opened the door they came in grabbed her picked her up and then I passed all my information and they took it from there and brought her to the hospital hey by the way go any better with the weather and everything we had I think it was great due to the location and the remoteness of the village even though it was close to Kodiak there were no services there this definitely would have been for the worse had we not been there there's a good case so good actually help someone that you knew neither [Music] the six Nero 3a is in route 68 year-old male with congestive heart failure the patient is suffering respiratory distress he must be ventilated and oxygenated in order to survive [Music] cute Scottish weather my name's James Gibson I'm a lieutenant the US Coast Guard and Air Station Sitka we're doing a Scottish Highland Games this year been counting one of my hobbies for about the last four years figured if I could I'd try to start walking in Sitka why do you not this is the first year we've tried it quite a few people came out everybody here besides me is pretty much a novice so hopefully I bought it as well [Music] I'm a lieutenant Mike Snyder I'm a pilot at Air Station Sitka you know we're just kind of joking about who's gonna scream the loudest on throws there was a ton of people there the crowd is really getting into it it was really electric caver cost is the premier Scottish event it's a tree trunk 20 foot long one hundred ten hundred twenty pounds and you'll have to pick it off the ground run with it and the goal is to try to flip the caber end over end just lands at a 12 o'clock position with the caver very technical and very hard to do for first-timers [Music] [Music] the caber was I far the most challenging event [Music] [Applause] the crowd is getting more and more frenzied they want to see somebody flip the caber over [Music] [Applause] we get three tries to pick it up [Music] first two tries I failed miserably [Applause] [Music] [Music] one of the great things about living in sick is it's a really small tight-knit community the Coast Guard is really beloved here and for the first time they've ever done the Highland Games it was a lot of fun [Music] ready for takeoff let's Guard rescue 38 rescue 3 a channel to end it clear over [Music] 386 a good copies to carry-out sk3 John Foster apparently the 6:03 a is in route to Skagway I was medevac 68 year old male with congestive heart failure plan is to get there load them up and burn Mizuno [Music] originally they had told us that the EMS there in Skagway was gonna have to join the patient in the helicopter the flight that did you know but they figured it was a better idea to have the flight surgeon in the helicopter with the patient on a ventilator right now I'm captain Thomas white flight surgeon at Air Station Sitka the patient is suffering a respiratory distress reportedly in congestive heart failure and needed a higher level of medical care expeditiously so I'm trying to gain as much information as I can from the controller and from people on the ground who are with the patient is he stable as he critical is he potentially unstable and what does he need and where does he need to go to get that ultimately [Music] my name is lieutenant James Gibson out here at Air Station Sitka we're kind of dealing with some really bad weather a lot of high winds excess to 40 knots and a lot of areas poor visibility all the way from Sitka I flew in a bad weather air station prior to coming to Alaska but I didn't fly inland at night between terrain the way we do here in southeast Alaska so we got to the airport and entered the airport pattern to shoot the approach to the runway and I could see the ambulance moving across the taxiway I don't know [Music] ready for approach when I exit the helicopter I have a rescue swimmer named ins Rob Simpson that's working with me and he is looking at what kind of equipment do we need do we need oxygen do we need the monitor I know he's on those things so while he is doing that I climb in and start talking to the provider who is currently taking care for the patient I see that he is in fact intubated having to have his respirations assisted and is also sedated as well but I'm a little bit concerned that his oxygen level is on the borderline and so I say to myself that he is stable right now but he certainly doesn't have any room for deterioration at this point so the transition comes in to the helicopter where the ground crew is no longer involved in his care directly and it's all on us in the helicopter at that point I want to make sure that the endotracheal tube appears to be placed properly that we're not missing any major diagnoses that's going to affect his care in transit [Music] Wow at some point during the transition the endotracheal tube had somehow failed there was a crimp in it and it sheared off and in 22 years of practice I have never seen this happen at that point we had a patient who is not breathing because he is sedated he has a tube coming out of his mouth and he is short died if nothing happens we are responding to a patient in respiratory distress we are told that he may have some congestive heart failure and that he is critically ill Wow at some point during the transition the endotracheal tube had somehow failed there was a crimp in it and it sheared off and we both realized that the patient absolutely must be ventilated and oxygenated in order to survive and Rob he ventilates the patients and a tracheal tube with his mouth because that's what had to be done my big concern is that although the patients getting ventilated the human body only breathes out 15% oxygen and that's not going to be enough to sustain this gentleman for the long haul and we need to get a better airway into him quickly so I prepare to reintubate the patient [Applause] [Applause] their interest rate kill soup to free that what happened yeah well my concerns are we've just placed another advanced airway and I want to make sure that that doesn't fail so I want to make sure that he is adequately at rest so he's not going to fight the tube that's already in place morphine sulfate is sometimes used for congestive heart failure and it has a side effect of helping him to feel more sedated and not fight the tube as much so we did administer some morphine in flight it did make a difference pretty much I have all the confidence in the world in the rescue swimmers that I work with rob is a true Guardian and he acts to help others I believe in a heroic way in out of just pure instinct we had a failed endotracheal tube which occurred at just about the worst possible time because the helicopter is taking off and we both realized that it was very important for him to get to a higher level of care and that's exactly what he did he he may made it happen [Music] my name is max gay I live in Delton Michigan we was on a trip to Alaska we'd done the total land cruise and we got down to Skagway and I developed pneumonia the last thing I remember was being in front of the Med Center in Skagway in my case it was definitely between life and death in that moment you think I got my wife here we're 3,000 miles from home I can't do this to her I cannot I cannot leave her like this luckily for me the people in Skagway the Coast Guard saved my life you can't give them enough thanks they are they're warriors of the sky I guess is what you'd call them and they do a tremendous job fine job [Music]

Channel: DANGER TV

Views: 170,180

Rating: 4.90099 out of 5

Keywords: ship wreck, coast guard alaska, full episode, full episode of coast guard alaska, coast guard alaska season 2 episode 12, coast guard alaska season 2, full episode of coast guard alaska season 2 episode 12, us coast guard, us coast guard alaska, united states coast guard, danger, dangertv, danger tv, Danger, DangerTV, Danger TV, dangertv coast guard, us military, us coast guard search and rescue, us coast guard alaska search and rescue, ship wrecks at sea, ship wrecked on land

Id: yt1soRyGLt8

Length: 42min 33sec (2553 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020