No one charged in botched river rescue

[rick]

By FAITH SWYMER
Union Leader Correspondent
8 hours, 56 minutes ago

NEWPORT – Six months after a woman died during a botched airboat rescue on the Connecticut River, the Sullivan County attorney announced yesterday that no criminal charges would be filed.

"These were people who were trying to do something good," said Marc Hathaway of the volunteer fire rescue crew from Cornish who responded last Aug. 22 to transport Virginia Yates, 64, of Rockingham, Vt. "They fully expected this trip to be made safely."

Yates had fallen...

Full story: http://www.unionleader.com/article....adline=No+one+charged+in+botched+river+rescue

 

[bigkavr]

Though I'm very happy that my fellow rescuers were not criminally charged, this is a very good example of why Rescue Airboat Training is so crucial!! The ONLY reason this fatality happened, is lack of training.... Everything said in the article about the chain of events leading up to the swamping would have been identified by a properly trained airboat operator and the correct action taken to insure a safe and effective rescue. Training, training, training.......................
It's sad that in the fire service, we wouldn't even think about letting anyone near a pumper till they had the proper training and "stick time" before we turned them loose on their own.. But that same fire service will buy a boat and suddenly every officer is an expert on all aspects of boat operations..
I'm dealing with something like this with two different fire departments now. They both want training, but the bean counters don't see the need for the money involved.
They said the Fire Chiefs haven't justified the cost!!! Welcome to my world....
How many more accidents need to happen before the "higher ups" realize that training (and continual training) are an integral part of airboat operations.
Ok, sorry, I'll get off my soap box now... Man, where's that coffee NOW!!!
Brian.

 

[Rich Andrews]

Bigkavr,
bring this article in, and your picture on that goliath wave, and say BEANCOUNTER you want to venture out some day without training. You'll get his attention.

 

[Sniper]

Wingman I totally agree with you as anal as fire dept are about training and being qualified and the just let this kind of thing slide does not make any since, when and if any one else wants to get a rescue Airboat in Georgia I hope they want and get the proper training.

 

[Whitebear]

Training is everything when lives are in the balance. There is no substitute, not simulators, not fishing boats, and not airplane time. There must be training in an airboat and an airboat of VERY similar kind as well.

One of the things I learned in the NAVY was why the NAVY trains 24/7. When the time comes to use it, its way past too late to figure it out. Ops in an airboat need to be so well honed it becomes instinctive. The op needs to be able to articulate his knowledge to fit around unforseen circumstances. The op also needs to have very recent time in the boat as well.

I am coming back from a long hiatus from airboats and as much as I knew and as many hours as I have it still feels like amateur hour to me. There is simply no substitute for trining and recent time in kind.

Scotty

 

[BoHawg]

Somewhere and at some time, I saw an advertisement for training on airboats. Seems like it was a certification course. Can y'all tell me what it's all about and where it's located?