 Bikes began in earnest. The first of 10 Black Hawk helicopters took off at first light Thursday morning as they began ferrying stranded and shocked tourists out of Galtur, Austria. Each Black Hawk was able to lift between 10 and 11 people per flight. But after the Austrian government asked the Americans to remove the seats from the helicopters, they were able to load between 20 to 25 passengers. It's about 30 minutes, 30 to 40 minutes round trip from the movement from the Autobahn where we're staging from to the pickup zone here and then back and offload. But we're turning them pretty quick. The load time has been about five minutes, five to seven minutes. These folks are definitely want to get out of here. So they're giving us automatic cooperation. Over 1200 people were pulled to safety out of Galtur alone on Thursday, carrying only one bag per family, some families with pets. They lined up and waited their turn to get onto one of the waiting aircraft. For stranded families like the Rockles of Alm, Germany, they were extremely grateful that the Americans had come to assist in the rescue effort. We were very happy when we heard that the USA are coming and help us. We got the helicopters out bigger. We can leap earlier with the American, with the help of the American helicopters. By six in the evening, air crews from the International Air Bridge had pulled everyone who wanted out out of the remote mountain village. Reporting from Galtur, Austria, Tony Sweeney, USERer News.