The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is saving lives with their helicopter and search and rescue team. Since July, they have rescued 24 people.
With the unusually warm winter temperatures and hot spring and summer temperatures not too far away, the Sheriff’s Department is always on the lookout for stranded hikers.
Wednesday, they were training to prepare for the real thing. They practiced a number of their rescue methods. One of them is called a hoist, where they use a real deputy as the victim.
“There is a cable, it lowers to the ground team and the ground team is able to hook that onto the Boman bag. It’s a bag that is designed to secure the patient as they are lifted up in the air, while using that bag to lift them up the ground team is using a tag line attached the Boman bag. It allows them to control to and avoid spin on that cable,” said Pima County Sheriff Department Sgt. Jason Dowdy.
http://www.kvoa.com/news/pima-co-sheriff-s-department-saving-lives-with-rescue-helicopter/