Rescued Hiker Spins on Stretcher During Phoenix Airlift

June 5, 2019
Video of the helicopter rescue by Phoenix firefighters Tuesday shows the woman's stretcher rapidly spinning high above the ground as the aircraft flies away.

A woman hurt on a hike on Phoenix's third-largest mountain peak had a bumpy experience as she was airlifted to a nearby hospital Tuesday.

Phoenix firefighters used a helicopter to transport the hiker from Piestewa Peak at around 8:15 a.m. after she suffered injuries to her face and head following a fall, the Washington Post reports. As the helicopter flew off, turbulence was caused by the aircraft's rotor, and video from KSAZ-TV showed the woman's stretcher rapidly spinning in circles as it dangled high above the ground.

That type of spinning is a known issue with hoist rescues like the one firefighters performed Tuesday, and a special line has stopped that from happening in the past, according to city officials. Unfortunately, the line broke in this case.

“Sometimes when we bring the helicopter up from the ground, (the basket) will start to spin,” Paul Apolinar, the chief pilot for Phoenix police, told the Post. “We have a line attached to the basket that’s supposed to prevent that. Today, it didn’t.”

Besides some nausea and dizziness, the woman, who is believed to be in her 70s, didn't suffer any further injuries caused by the spinning, and she was finally pulled up into the helicopter before being flown to a local trauma center to be evaluated, according to the TV station. Apolinar told the Post that Phoenix firefighters have performed this type of rescue more than 200 times in the past six years and have only experienced that type of spinning twice.

“We’re not trying to minimize what happened up there,” Fire Capt. Bobby Dubnow said at a press conference Tuesday. "It’s something we don’t expect, but we anticipate, and we train for it. Nothing happened today that we weren’t prepared to deal with.”