Dispatcher in control tower on red phone.



Ready room crew responds and runs toward helicopter.
8 ft


Crew suits up and helicopter takes off.
10 ft


Helicopter in air.
11 ft


Medic and fireman rappel at simulated crash site
9 ft


Burning wreckage and firefighter.
12 ft


Intereview with paramedic.
12 ft


Spraying from on wreckage.
20 ft



Initials


This Coveage is of experimental aircraft crash and rescue techniques studied at Fort Eustis, Virginia
NOTE TO EDITORS: Please credit Department of Defense in title or commentary.
This motion picture released to CBS for duplication and distribution to interested television and newsfilm pool members. This original footage may not be cut and is to be returned within 72 hours to the Department of Defense Audio-visual Acquisitions Branch, Room 2E 773, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. 20301.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A red phone is activated in the control tower and a rescue helicopter team races to the chopper to be transported to a simulated crash site within less than a minute.

A helicopter hovers over the crash site, the rescue team rappels -- their mission is to spray a foam path thru the flames, enter the burning wreckage, remove the injured and fly them to the nearest hospital.

This unique team is comprised of a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, a specially trained para medic, and a crash rescue specialist.

Even though a pilot may bring his troubled craft to the ground safely, he and his passengers could die minutes later from what a pilot fears more than the impact itself....aircraft fire. High octane fuel and other aircraft flammable sometimes reach temperatures in excess of thousand degrees and within three minutes can consume an average aircraft.

Neither this crash site nor intended victims were real, but the red phone has rung nineteen times in the past two years. Each time, the endangered pilot was able to signal his distress only moments before hitting the ground. And each time the rescue ship was there to meet him. These studies of this unique operation continue and may someday be adopted by every major airport in the country.