Author: Meredith Hemphill
A Bell 429 helicopter comes into view over the trees and hovers above the clearing, its blades slicing through the air with that characteristic thwomp-thwomp-thwomp. As it slowly descends, the wind from its rotors whips the tall grass, sending dust and dry vegetation flying. A person in a black flight suit and yellow helmet slides out of the helicopter door. They are lowered down on a hoisting wire toward a small group of people in the clearing below, communicating via hand signals to the crew in the aircraft. These survivors on the ground watch and wait to be pulled into the helicopter and dropped again somewhere safe. Then they will walk to a new location and do it all over again.
As high-drama as the operations appeared, the rescue missions the Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (HART) undertook on July 17-18 at the National Guard facilities in Salisbury were strictly for training purposes. HART is a collaboration between the NC National Guard, North Carolina Emergency Management, State Highway Patrol and local fire departments and EMS agencies from across the state. The Guard and the Patrol provide the helicopters, and members from all the partner agencies train as HART technicians. These crews are based out of Raleigh and Salisbury. They deploy for missions like swift water/flood rescue, high angle mountain and wilderness rescue. Monthly training events such as the one last week in Salisbury help HART technicians and flight crews keep their skills sharp while also training new technicians in various types of rescues.
The HART program just celebrated its twentieth anniversary in April. When the program was created in 2004, it was one of the first in the nation to combine military and civilian resources. Since then, other states and even other countries have looked to NC HART to help them start their own programs. Only three of the founding members are still active, and one of them was at the July 17 training. Jeff Bright works for the Charlotte Fire Department and has been a HART technician since the beginning. He was also on the very first NC HART mission.
“We had a hurricane up in the mountains. There was pretty significant water, and we had a family that was basically put out on an island. They couldn’t get any of the guys to them in their boats, so from there we made the decision to have the first helicopter mission take place,” Bright said.
At the event in Salisbury, the HART technicians weren’t pulling anyone from the water. Instead, they were practicing wilderness and urban structure rescues. Some of the “survivors,” played by fellow first responders, climbed into a model house made of two stacked shipping containers or a welded metal tower that represented a five-story building. Others pretended to be lost in the swath of trees and tall grass. Each of the four teams took their turn at four different scenarios. The metal tower located at the Miller Ferry Fire Station was a brand-new training mission this time. According to Chris Bailey, emergency services coordinator for NCEM and the NC HART program manager, HART is always working to improve and expand.
“It is always an evolving program. We want to continue to advance our airframes, standardize our equipment and build partnerships,” he said.
Listen to the NC HART Safety Scoop podcast episode.
###