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Helicopter Makes Emergency Landing At Long Beach Poly by Ryan ZumMallen | Archive | 07.23.10 |
+ 10:35am | A routine exercise turned extremely dangerous yesterday when a Sheriff's Department helicopter began leaking fuel and was forced to unload fuel onto the ground below as pilots made an emergency landing at the Long Beach Poly High School baseball field. An Air-5 Rescue Sikorsky helicopter was conducting routine maintenance checks over the Pacific Ocean around 12:40pm on Thursday when one of its two engines failed and pilots headed back to the Long Beach Airport. They soon noticed, however, that the aircraft was losing significant oil and they would need to make an emergency landing. According to a press release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department: "In order to land safely, it was necessary, under emergency procedures, to off load some fuel to lighten the aircraft over downtown Long Beach from an altitude of about 1,000 feet." Offloading some fuel allowed the pilots to steer the helicopter to a safe location, but it did dump fuel over a naval shipyard, loading docks and residential areas of Long Beach while en route to Poly. No one was injured, but the Press-Telegram reported today that one person near the Golden Shore RV Park was struck by the fuel. The Long Beach Fire Department said that several calls complained of an unknown liquid falling from the sky.
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4 Comments so far.
Birdman of long beach glad my little bird friends didnt get the blame this time. Dennis Lord When the chips are down, the training kicks in. I applaud the pilot's execution of emergency procedures resulting in a positive outcome. Minor inconvenience (as affirmed by LB Fire) far outweighs loss of life or property. Well done, my "Big" bird friends. Now let the investigation on cause begin and fix it so it doesn't happen again. Parks A much better and safer location would have been Hamilton Bowl, PCH and Walnut (a few blocks away from Poly High) ... it's enclosed and less after operation clean-up. Table top exercises should include this location for any unusual occurrence. Bill Graham When there is an infliight emergency you do not have the option of where you want to go most of the time. This air crew did an incredible job of protecting the citizens of Long Beach with their skills. We are blessed in Los Angeles County to have a collection of pilots between LASD Areo, LA Co FD Air Operations and LA City Fir Air Ops that are some of the best pilots in the world. It is easy to sit at your computer and second guess these amazing pilots, I guaranty they know where they can set down in an emergency. This was thier option at the time they needed it. The pilots should recieve commendations for their actions.
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LBPOST.com Managing Editor Ryan ZumMallen keeps up on all the current and breaking Long Beach news.
Ryan ZumMallen has served as the managing editor of the LBPOST.com since 2007. He graduated from CSULB with a degree in Print Journalism in 2008 and is a member of the 2009 class of Leadership Long Beach. You can find him on various basketball courts around the city.
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