Helicopter mishap while swapping top beacon

This is old footage of our attempt to swap out the top beacon from atop the 1,500-foot tall KSBW tower on top of Mt. Madonna in Gilroy, California. Upon finally getting the rope to Steve on top of the antenna, the pilot attempts to radio that he is going to lift the beacon. He accidentally depresses the "cut away" button instead of the "push to talk" and dropped the rigging. This can be seen at the very end of the helicopter footage where the rope goes slack. By the grace of God the unbolted beacon stayed at the top of the antenna and the rigging missed the man at 1,400 feet on the base of the antenna. We finished this job the old fashion way!

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Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Hilights
• Inc.
• Aviation
• Obstruction
• Lights
• Broadcast
• Tower

[pdub452000]

now I know why they invented tripods.

[hilights360]

Yea, he (the station engineer) was bad at it! I was coordinating the pick so I had my hands full.

[hilights360]

Gilroy, California

[VerseHunterV2]

caspian border bf3

[sysop1001]

I would recognize that laugh anywhere Tim. I hope that wasn't Steve up there! LOL!

[motokid032]

Whos ready for the Garlic Festival!?

[pespectx]

i think pdub452000 was referring to the shaky camra

[tackN2Wind]

..lesson learned: Never hire a pothead for a pilot. How stupid do you have to be to confuse the rigging release for a push-to-talk button!!

[icpfan19]

why are u shakeing the camara

[Airlifts]

Ok who was in charge of vetting and hiring the helicopter company? That is who I would fire! The first guy that steps up and says "hey, that looks easy! I'll do it with my R-22" is the guy I would run away from FAST!! That is a difficult job even for an experienced pilot. Never mind some R-22 wannabe! I bet the R-22 guy was cheap thats why he got the job huh?!! Sorry, there's no free lunch, You get what you pay for cheapskate! Lucky no one got hurt or killed this time!

[wallyj16]

How many times have you laid in bed thinking about all the other things that could have went wrong? I've seen goofy things on towers but I would have waved that pilot away. I've stacked steel with helicopters in the past. This will give me nightmares. Glad you are around to share the story.