‘He was close to the edge, for sure’: N.S. helicopter crew rescue camper from raging floodwaters

Firefighters couldn’t get across raging floodwaters to rescue the man who had been camping in the woods near Windsor.

It was Saturday morning and he was in the water, clinging to trees as a river roared past. Swift water rescue experts had attempted to cross it to get to the man, who had been there all night. But the water was impassable.

Cue the five-person crew of a Cormorant helicopter out of 14 Wing Greenwood.

“He was in the trees, but essentially the whole forest had become a river at that point,” said Sgt. Calvin Slute, a search and rescue technician at 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron.

“He was kind of on a piece of land (about a metre square) that was just sticking out of the current … There was no way somebody could get across that current without getting swept away.”

‘All underwater’

The man’s camping gear had been wrecked. “It was all underwater at that point.”

After landing their helicopter near the firefighters to check out the situation, it became clear “the best option we had was to probably put me down through the trees downstream where there was a little bit less current.”

The man who needed rescuing was soaking wet.

“He was distressed, you could see that he was ready to get out of there. The firefighters said that he mentioned he wanted to swim across,” Slute said, noting that would have not ended well.

“He was close to the edge, for sure.”

‘Couldn’t see anybody below’

The helicopter crew gave the firefighters smoke flares to mark the area across from where the man was stranded.

“There was such a tree canopy that we couldn’t see anybody below the trees” from the Cormorant when it was in the air, Slute said.

The pilot flew above the area “and eventually with the downwash of the helicopter we were able to see ok, this is the area where he is,” Slute said.

“So, at that point, we inserted me by the hoist down through the trees.”

The crew lowered the 37-year-old down on a wire.

‘Lose contact’

“This would be especially different because they were going to lose contact with me through the trees,” Slute said. “They wouldn’t be able to see me through the canopy.”

When he got down, there was no ground to speak of.

“I ended up in chest-deep water,” Slute said.

He had to disconnect from the hoist cable and navigate around some trees to make his way to the stranded camper.

“I was clawing my way through – grabbing on to branches and just trying to get through the debris.”

The man didn’t say anything when help arrived.

‘Ready to go’

“He was ready to go. It’s a very loud environment. There was lot of me yelling and giving him direction – ‘Put this on, stay with me, we’re on our way out here.’”

The search and rescue technician wrapped the shivering man in a piece of material called a horse collar and secured it to himself, then put a helmet on him.

“I knew that we were going to be going through tree limbs just to get back up,” he said.

He also put a life vest on the man.

Unfortunately, Slute wasn’t in contact with his crew in the helicopter at this point because the radio secured to his chest didn’t survive the trip down on the hoist.

‘Flooded with water’

“It was flooded with water because I didn’t expect to go so deep into the water. So, we lost communication.”

But the firefighters across the water could see him and tell the helicopter above approximately where the two men were.

Slute still had the wire to the helicopter in his hand, but he had to get back through the trees to the spot where he’d first dropped into the water.

Once he’d done that, he raised his hand to signal they were ready to lift off.

‘Went limp’

“Unfortunately, due to the tree cover, they could not find me. At that point, the patient kind of went limp and fell into the current, which caused me to lose my footing. So, we did end up going down current slightly.”

Eventually, Master Cpl. Andrew Barr, the other search and rescue technician in the helicopter, spotted Slute’s bright red harness and ordered them hoisted up.

“I have absolute faith in my helicopter pilots (Capt. Jeremy Appolloni and Capt. Frederick Page) and my flight engineer (Cpl. William Slack) and my team member that are all up in that aircraft working with me. So, I wasn’t concerned. Even though our flight engineer, it was his first day posted here. While I’d just met him, I know that our training system produces trained professionals.”

The patient was conscious.

‘Spun all the way up’

“But he was not responding at that point,” Slute said.

“We got stuck on some branches going up. So, I had to clear the branches, but that sent us into quite the spin on the hoist cable. So, then we spun all the way up and I just held on to him until we could get to the helicopter.”

The rescuers were concerned the man was suffering from hypothermia.

“He was happy to get his wet clothes off and get some warm blankets around him, and they had an ambulance waiting at the nearby fire department.”

The Cormorant landed at a nearby fire department to hand over their patient. “He just thanked us – he said, ‘Thank you very much.’”

Slute’s been doing this job for eight years. He’s been in the military for 15.

‘Top five’

This rescue “is definitely up there in the top five, for sure,” he said.

“Just because it’s something we can’t really train for that often.”

In case you’re wondering, Slute wildest rescue is probably the one where he and a partner had to parachute into the Arctic wilderness in the winter of 2019 to rescue an injured hunter.

“I had to spend two days out there with him before we could be recovered by a helicopter,” he said. “It was cold. And we lived out on the land with him, taking care of him.”

‘Their worst day’

Slute is clearly passionate about his job. “You’re dealing with people on their worst day and it’s obvious that you can get a lot out of helping people when you can see that they’re in such a hurting spot.”

Lessons learned from this rescue include getting wireless communications for his helmet.

“In hindsight, there’s always improvements we can make,” Slute said.

He’s also hoping the military can find sleeker lifejackets to put on people being rescued. Slute was afraid that if he inflated the bulky ones they have now “it was going to add to the ensnaring scenario with the branches and make things more difficult for me.”