Added: 3 years ago
From: NationalGeographic
Views: 103,995
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (284)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • I thought these guys were bonding on, because the helicopter produces static electricity due to the whirrling blades. 230,000 volts would make a man disappear in a puff of steam, wouldn't it? I always heard that if you were being rescued by a helicopter to let the line touch the ground first to avoid the static shock. Yes? No?

  • @JetMechMA your right about letting the line touch the ground first especially if your on standing on metal and surrounded by water its so bad that you probably wont be able grab it...

  • Volts that jolts mills(amps) that kills. If he didnt use the bonding clamp there would be a difference (potential) of 230,000 volts between him and the phase and he would die along with the rest of the crew.

  • @ntfclad1985 Why don't birds get juiced?

  • @JetMechMA Because birds come from thin air which is the best insulator of electricity there is and land on one phase only and this creates no potential. A bird is so small it does not create a path worthy of electricity to flow through. If a bird had wide enough legs and touched two phases at the same time or touched a phase and earth it would be a dead bird. Electricity is a lazy thing. It will always find the easiest route from one spot to another or the easiest route to earth

  • @JetMechMA Because they are touching only ONE wire and not going to ground or to another phase.

  • amps x volts = watts.....its the watts that kill.

  • @koringn You are fired. The amps are what kills. Can you make an educated "guess" how many amps can put a man down?

  • @botch916 50milli amps will stop your heart.

  • its not the volts that kill.

  • I think he is exaggerating telling how deadly dangerous this is. If this is a standard procedure which servicemen do every day, and he can repeat it without any skill (they even allowed him to do it!), it is not THAT risky. But the knowledge about dangers of electricity makes viewers think "Wooow, balls of steel".

  • a rigger shouldn't touch ant kv

  • Guy's got balls made of an alloy unknown to man.

  • I always trust theories they are completely safe...not

  • LOL, the current flowed through his body? If that were to happen he would be dead charcoal by now.

  • @sanosukke if your not grounded it wouldn't kill him. it does actually flow through him and the helicopter. it's when your feet are touching the ground or when the electricity has a direct line through your body to the ground that it would kill you

  • @fromashestoflame LOL I know that, that's why I said that, and again, if he's not grounded or closing a circuit, the current WON'T flow through his body, and if there's no current flowing through his body he's safe, simple like that.

  • @sanosukke sorry dude I was arguing a moot point. I meant around him and the helicopter not through him. my bad

  • Total concentration does not include talking to the camera while telling the viewers what you are doing as you perform the operation. Too much room for distraction, inattention or in this case show-boating. The job is dangerous without needless chatter. Do it, get it done and get away. Chit chat belongs on the ground.

  • You see 10,000+ volts every time your clothes are stuck together in the dryer and you pull them apart.

  • I wanna know where the pilot is from. Sounds like from Newfoundland..

  • plug a lampwire into your ass ... stand ina shower with your fingerin alight socket, stupid faggot. YOu should have jumped off the helicoptorand saved everybody a lot of time. Stick your dick in a light socket while standing in the shower stupid dick.

  • @billbrett365 Fag troll

  • why didnt they just shut of the power for a minute

  • @xDjAsOnF : AHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA­AAAAAAAA :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D xD XD!!!!!MADEMYDAY FREAK!!!:D!

  • Do any of you know what the hell you all talking about? Cause some of these comments seems to have no idea as to what the hell is going on in the this video...and to you assholes that think this gay or fake you all need to do your research before you open your mouths! Because some of you dont even know

  • All voltage no current

  • pussy, ive touched 230 000 volts with my cock

  • I touched a million volts, thats fuck all

  • "230 thousand volts flowing through my hands" stupid faggots. There is nothing flowing through your hands except your AIDS infested blood.

    I hope this stupid shit talking asshole accidently electricutes himself one day.

    shit video

    PS: Volts don't "flow" through anything. Current flows. Ignorant cunts.

  • @hardstyle905 ionisation can still take you out

  • @hardstyle905 I picked up on this inaccuracy also but I think it is a misunderstanding.

    If you listen he later says "around his body" so he is obviously aware that the suit is acting as a cage.

    I think with hindsight - when he says "through his hands" what he is referring to is the cable which he is holding on to - rather than the electricity actually going through his body.

  • He isn't actually earthed, so it is safe.

  • @Billinghaylad1976 But if he didnt use the bonding clamp there would be a difference of 230000 volts between him and the phase and his ass would be toast regardless of touching the ground or not

  • that cant be good for you 

  • Poor slob, the pilot only makes 47 bucks an hour. Seems to me he should make a lot more.

  • @Crifstar Nope, they make alot more...at least here in Canada we make $120 plus per hour.

  • @IIB20VTEC I work for the company that is highlighted on the show and I'm in the same union as the helicopter pilot.

  • How could it kill him, as he says, if he doesn't do it right? That sounds like pure bullshit to me, he's nowhere near anythign that could ground him.

  • 2:00 is where he actually makes the arc.

  • Wow Line Men are CRAZY ! Hats off to the line men in the world.

  • .....try the top most power line

  • Um, not actually flowing through his hands or he'd be toast.

  • What a coward...

  • @ 0:39 looks like!!! a super hero is flying....

  • Comment removed

  • Volts don't flow.

  • Comment removed

  • I would do that !

  • I don't get it... a monkey could do that, and a monkey wouldn't have to worry about fear because he doesn't know wtf it is

  • I've never seen a bird sitting on any wire more than 20,000 volts to ground. Landing, it would experience sparks as shown and if it did grab the wire would get corona off the extremities.

  • I have the same question as a previous comment "What exactly did he fix?"

    ...another comment pointed out that birds of all sizes do this very same thing daily perhaps as a matter of course ...interesting how we sensationalize acts that birds demonstrate so naturally

  • What boggles my mind is why he has to wear a hot suit yet birds can just fly right up the lines and sit on them (provided they don't touch two phases at once - like owls sometimes do when landing).

  • These pilots fucking suck. The guy must be drunk. No one that crappy would be given that job.

  • why grabbing it? just to test it? wtf?

  • gay

  • The pilot is absolutely holy skillfull.....

  • start watching @ 2.00 min

  • what the heck? i was expecting that 230kV to make HUGE arcs, but its just like a bigger version of my ignition coil's sparks. hmmm.....

  • @a380rockerfan With your ignition coil you are making huge currents as you are making a short. Here there is only current flowing to corona loss and the charging of the 'capacitive' properties of the helicopter to the air. Since there is less current there are smaller arcs, or at least that is how I see it. Correct me if I'm wrong more enlightened ones. ;-)

  • he doesn't get a shock as he isn't touching the ground or shorting it.

    otherwise birds would be fried and you see them sitting on high voltage wires and electrified tracks.

  • how do you grab onto it without bonding to it? just STFU.

  • Comment removed

  • Doesn't really seem all that "dangerous" since I've seen stun batons that are packing 500k to a million volts.

  • @AbolishedHierarchy

    That's because everyone overlooks the amps. It's the amps that kill you. You can take a jolt from 1 million volts...as long as the amps are low enough and the ohms are high enough. Otherwise...well...

  • in switzerland is it forbidden to work under voltage -400 Volts

  • more than dead...They'd be ash and dust

  • I too work in this field and to have that sort of voltage worked on is the best thing! :D

  • aww....shouldve touched phase to phase.....le fried chicken!

  • any idiot should know this

  • is this guy kidding? dangerous? he isnt touching ground, there is no voltage potential hense no 230k running through him. stupid show trying to grab views with sensationalistic BS.

  • 99% of people donno that. Soo..to those people. It's real.

  • - @mburch1974 -

    Hello, Troll. To be clear - should he just grab on to the wire without bonding on to it first he would be hurt.

    He IS AT voltage potential. Just because he's not connected to ground doesn't mean there isn't potential.

  • At 2:18 he states that 230k volts are traveling through his hands; when in fact, not a single milivolt is going through him. The electricty is traveling through the wire.

  • Heheh nice ^^

  • Try to lick on the line :D

  • do they have to do anything special to ground the helicopter before/after it lands?

  • They use the same rod on the ground to make the helicopter "nutral" to the ground agein. Ive seen the full film about how they do it...

  • 0.3 amp is deadly - IT IS THE CURRENT that kills! Neither this chopper or the bloke are GROUNDED or EARTHED and so the current bypasses this add on and continues. A helicopter landing a man on a submarine is far more dangerous.

  • btw: the line seemd fine, what did he actualy fix ??

  • Nothing, he just wanted to go there and think he was being electrocuted...

  • Some of u are stupid. This is real, that is a phase on a 230kv three phase power bus. Just as the air doesnt short the 230kv to earth, when the man and the helicopter come into contact with the 230kv the air does not connect them to the earth much, so little currant flows through them to earth.

  • These helicopter pilots are the best of the best.

    Unimaginable amounts of concentration going on here.

    10 / 5

  • i agree that takes a steady hand

  • I agree that's masterful flying.

  • not is a fake =.=''...go to study xD....

  • no no thats real man.

    Thats the price we pay to have electricity non stop.

    if we wanted to replace a line or install new insulation cup strings. we'd have to shut that line off. and that means 1,000,000's of people out of power on these type of transmission lines.

    He doesnt get shocked because he's not connected to the earth (grounded) it makes sparks because the helicopter has potential (its made out of metal) but its not connected to the earth.

    called a floating ground. like a automobile

  • oh just to add on to why these guys arn't being shocked.

    there wearing a suit made out of some sort of metal thread. this passes the current around his body instead of directly through.

    The electronics in the helicopter are also very well insulated.

    These lines men make a F$#%#ing S#@$ load of money btw. helo pilot does as well.

  • wow.. crazy shit

  • I won't suggest 10 mega volts through you're heart unless there is absolutely zero current potential, and not even then. The human body introduces resistance to the equation. The resulting heat build up would be a bit like being hit with micro waves. It would cook you from the inside out, and would happen fast. Add in even 20mA at that voltage level and you're a shadow burned into whatever is near you. Clearly, some don't understand electrical principles.

  • microwaves don't cook things from the inside out.

  • why do people make voltage seem deadly? you could have 10 megavolts going strait through ur heart as long as its low current

  • Static electricity from clothes is many millions of volts...

  • not amps jase volts, big difference.

  • And again, you're wrong. There is not a power transmission line in the world that runs at 23Mv. 230Kv, definitely.

    Since most power transmission lines are AC, power transfer is measured in watts, not amps.

  • Your talking about kVA in terms of measurement of transmission lines?

  • Never said kVA. kV, yes, 230kV isn't uncommon.

  • Yea, your talking about kVA. Im an electrician, your correct that the power transfer in transmission lines and suppy transformers are measured in watts, Im not sure if you know this, but the unit measurement is not called watts, its kVA. It means watts but in a different way. Im aware that 220kV isn't uncommon, here we have 500kV in some parts, 600kV for our power station links.

  • Just for a laugh, if he accidentally touches another HV line causing a short circuit of negligible resistance, he would have 23,000,000 of amps flowing through him. Thats wot I call a flash bbq! lol

  • By using faraday principle here to protect himself by equalling potential difference (voltage) by connecting the rod to a HV line thus no current will flow. The current only flows if there's potential difference between two points! The only danger here is if the blades gets too close to another HV line the current could arc. Remember it's the current that kills not the voltage.

  • It's all about electrical potential. If the cable and the man are at the same electrical potential, current will not flow through him.

  • I don't see why he would be able to get shocked, as the helicopter doesn't create a path to earth...

  • That's right sim2lew. As long as the lineman and the line are at the same potential current cannot flow. If he created a path to ground he would change the electrical potential and it would be over in a blink of an eye. There is really nothing special about this other than the risk of the helicopter crashing into the lines. It's no different than a bird sitting on a single wire.

  • That's going to be why he was perched on the edge, instead of inside the copter, so that the copter is further away from the lines, avoiding a major disaster.

  • pple don't seem to understand : high voltage isn't that deadly !!,as long as the current stays low, but we built high voltage lines, becouse for high currents we would need far thicker cables (more conducting material etc. .. just to expensive) for good distribution/transport over long distances, everyone uses verry high transformed voltages, as long he doens't touch the ground, he's fine.btw: Otherwise all birds resting on the wires, would be coocked to. Chicken barbeque every day , no ?

  • 1 amp can kill you, and at that high on a voltage you wouldnt stand a chance..

  • 100 milliamps or the equivelant, 1/10 of an amp kills by ventricular fibrillation

  • actually 30 milliamps will do to!

  • Directly through the heart :P

  • pple don't seem to understand: the reasons of working on live Hi-V lines is what men must be prone to Energy Companies ease. In other words,showing every work day with a microwaves source for years,good wishes for their health.

  • You're verry right about that !!, ( I'm graduating this year in Electro-mechanics ) ... I'm working part-time in a nuclear powerplant, but people don't care , they need their power and energy nomatter what. They give me a nice paycheck and some weekly tablets for the radiation ,  ...and I'm supposed to be just fine, and I am actualy , just fine .

  • Wait, did I miss something?  What exactly did he fix? To me it looked like they flew to the line, he grabbed it, talked about it, and then they flew away....

  • I have seen the episode on pay-TV, & they showed him replacing spacers on the lines. Fairly extreme work I would have thought.

  • @steppappy its only a short clip from a national geographic program it doesn't show him doing the job he only demonstrates the concept right here

  • @steppappy you'd have to see the full episode. I believe this was just a practice round and Sean went on to replace a cablespacer on a live line somewhere later on.

  • @steppappy they are checking for live power lines

  • @steppappy he didnt fix anything, hes just saying, they have to fix it while its live. and hes demonstrating how they fix it or deal with the lines without blowing them selves up.(( in mid air, live ))

  • @steppappy ya i didnt get it either...

  • Electricity takes the path of least resistance. The faraday cage was designed by Faraday. He believed that if you were at the same potential then the electricity would simply flow around your body (least resistance).

  • i bet he gets paid good to do that job with all the dangers involved. good work man!

  • he definetly felt electricity in his hands.definetly!

  • no he's wearing a faraday cage. the fabric he has on has metal threads in the clothes and it flows around him instead of through him. the buzz is the vibration of the line from the hv. he was totally safe the entire time. as long as they don't get connected to ground that is.... the only danger would be if the helicopter's blades accidentally got caught in the line.

  • umm it dont work like that. it wasnt going through him..

    electricity takes the shortest path.. through the wire, unless they make the path through his body shorter than the lines.. then hes lying. it dont possibly work.

  • yeah ur right. there is no way he "felt" that with out him being killed.

  • Only a very small amount, if you made the route shorter he would fry.

  • 2:26 feels good

    boom! crash! death!

  • incredibly

  • I knew he didn't die or they wouldn't have shown it.

  • "it feels good"

  • Balls..........that's all i can say...

  • That pilot is insanely skilled. Wonder how many hours he has?

  • wow yea one wrong move and there both toast.

  • apart from being nerve racking it's very safe as long as you follow procedure.

  • Thats a MH-6 LIttle Bird

  • I'm confused, helicopter is flying so no contact with ground is achieved, so why is there still sparks when he touches it with the rod? where is the electrical flow going to, or is the electron mass of the helicopter allowing some form of exchange?

  • initially the helicopter is roucghly "0" volts, or grounded, and once it comes into contact with the line it raises to the same voltage of the line, which doesn't happen instantaneously (although very quickly) and this causes the sparks.

  • The heli is made of special conducting material... the suit that he is wearing is a special insulator that has at leas enough value to over come the heli power and the line power.

  • actualy the suit he wears is a type of faraday cage

  • To expound a little on the suit, it is made with a very highly conductive material, which takes any voltage difference from the Heli and the line and carries the electricity around the body and not through it. Works on the same principal that a fully metal car body will carry a lightning strike safely around the passengers, no the rubber tires have nothing to do with the protection.

  • You bring up a good point!!! Is it possible that the helicopter rotor's generate enough static to give it some potential? Food for thought!

  • I think I'll study a little more before I start touching high voltage lines based on my current knowledge!

  • helicopter has an electrical potential.. whatever it is. which means it has a different potential then the line voltage itself.. likely 500 000 volts. but thats not the point. thats the jist of theory you should know. a difference in potential means that the greater will travel to the lesser. once again.. in theory. thats me trying to be helpful

  • fuck all that shit. the pilot deserves the credit that was some incredible hovering.

  • yeah no joke... the guy grabbed onto the line and he wasnt grounded.... how amazing. but dude that pilot was freaking awesome =p

  • If he had been grounded he would be bbq'ed :P

    I work with this thing, and that suit is made out of aluminium and makes the electricity flow around you instean of going into your muscles and paralyze your body! you wont die, but you wont be able to move as long as you touch the wire! If you're not grounded ofcourse =)

  • lol i was being sarcastic

  • I've heard that as long as you do it right and aren't grounded, you don't even have to have the suit on. ;)

  • i was waiting for the BUZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!

  • lol :P

  • is it really necessary for him to ride outside for the whole ride there? that seems more like a thing they did just to make it more intense, but really, i dont see why thats important in real life. i get the idea of the platform, but riding it all the way in is just dumb.

  • hahahahaha true... i wonder. what is he repairing anyway??

  • Normally they actually climb on to the line for the inspection, he wasn't doing anything there really.

  • he was replacing a piece of insulator that holds 2 wires at a certain length. This is important to make sure that the 2 wires don't swing and touch each other. I'm sure you can think what would happen if they both touch. This show is one hour long, this vid only showing 3 mins not the whole action.

  • Ah OK, thanks.

  • I would suggest that most of you smart as*es go take an intro course to physics of electricity and magnetism before posting you comments. Some people might actually believe you.

  • i'd almost be just as worried about falling off that little platform on the outside of the copter! hope the dude is glued down or something

  • see the straps across his chest? they are attached to the helicopter he will have waist ones too.

  • he neglected to tell us he never slept for a week after this lmao

  • I could immagine thats a huge adrenaline rush

  • he is not touching the aerth

  • the silver suit is made of a metalic fabric that make the electricity flow around his body not through him.

  • That pilot has HUGE NARDS

  • I wanted to see him touch it with his Hands`...not to grab them with a protective suit...misleading.....all that training

  • is it because u not touching ground thats why you dont get shock right>qq\ i think, if he was touching ground and that cable at the same time he would be death already,, woww dangerousss

  • being charged with 230,000 Volts does not necessarily mean it is flowing. at those voltages, the electrons become static.

    thx for being ignorant.

  • You mean static on the heli and person? Surely not on the line otherwise it would never get to us. LOL

  • wtf was he doing ?

    I don´t see him doing any kind of fixing anything.

  • I think the pilot should get mad props.  It's not east holding the bird still like that. Much experience and talent.

  • yea really, I can't even fly a kite correctly :P

  • ohh talk about over drama....

  • i dont get what he was doing?

    he said he was repairing something but he didn't look like he repaired anything...?

  • who cares if 230000volts sounds worse than 10 amps. if oyu are scared by numbers when you dont know what they mean. that = your a retard. this is the exact crap mass media pulls to pursuade to a certain opinion. this video is proof that retards can be scared of things that dont even make sense.

  • 10 A could make you to dust if you hold it longer than some few seconds, becouse you get "shocked" you can't get your hands of the wire, someone else must do that, if you dont have a friend near you when you're doing this, its like 100% chance that you will die.

  • thats a good pilot

  • I dont understand, what was wrong with the line t