SKEDCO, INC.

Recommended Personnel Placement
for Helicopter Hoisting of a Stretcher

Preferred Placement

Good Placement

Improper Placement

Ideal placement. Use of two tag lines is the safest way to prevent any litter from spinning. Two tag lines should always be used in training and non-hostile situations for best litter control. Maximum visibility for pilot and crew.

Good placement to prevent stretcher spin with minimum tension applied to tag line. Maximum visibility for pilot and ground crew.

While better than no tag line at all, this placement of personnel and equipment tilts the stretcher, increasing the likelihood of spin, and requires greater tension on the tag line to prevent the spin, creating an increased possibility of weak link separation.

WARNING! A NEW WEAK LINK MUST BE USED EACH TIME A HUMAN LOAD IS HOISTED!

Stretcher Spin

Skedco believes that there is a degree of risk involved any time a person is packaged in a stretcher and hoisted to a helicopter. There is risk not only to the patient in the stretcher, but to the helicopter and crew as well. All stretchers, including the SKED stretcher, have an inherent potential to spin when being hoisted by a helicopter. A spinning stretcher presents a variety of dangers to the patient, and cases have been recorded where an improperly packaged patient has been discharged from a stretcher and fallen to the ground. Skedco Inc. was asked for a tag line with a weak link and responded immediately with the Skedco Helitag Kit (NSN 6545O13810654). No personnel should perform a helicopter hoist of a patient without understanding the dangers of stretcher spin and the proper utilization of a tag line.

The rotor wash from a helicopter creates a natural wind force that can cause a stretcher to spin. Other factors which increase the tendency of a stretcher to spin include:

The utilization of a tag line can prevent the stretcher from spinning. Attaching the line to the stretcher have having ground personnel maintain tension while the stretcher is being lifted will provide the best available protection against stretcher spin. However, the presence of an attached line to the ground presents a potential danger to the aircraft and its crew, particularly in a combat environment. Should the tag line become entangled on the ground the helicopter crew could be placed in a position of having to release the patient to save the aircraft.

Some organizations involved in helicopter hoists choose to utilize a tag line which does not incorporate a weak link. These organizations recognize that, in the event the aircraft is in jeopardy, the patient must be released from the hoist.

The utilization of the "weak link" in a tag line represents a compromise, providing the best level of protection for the patient and the minimum risk to the aircraft. The weak link is designed to separate at a tension point at which the aircraft is jeopardized. After extensive consultation with military and civilian rescue personnel, Skedco included a weak link in the Helitag kit which is made of line rated to break at 135 pounds. Recommendations from field personnel ranged from 85 to 300 pounds. Weak links which break at the higher poundage not only present a risk to the aircraft, but would allow ground personnel to be inadvertently lifted from the ground by the aircraft. Weak links provided with the Skedco Helitag Kit are made of line rated to break at 135 pounds. Laboratory tests indicate that, when tied in a loop and pulled from both ends, Skedco weak links break at from 275 to 310 pounds.

Personnel utilizing the Skedco Helitag Kit should recognize that when a weak link breaks it is doing its job. However, the separation of a weak link places renewed risk on the patient. Skedco believes that a spinning litter is preferable to a falling litter. In the case of weak link failure, the litter should be lowered back to the ground, and the conditions which led to the failure analyzed, to determine if further hoisting can be done safely.