Seaking helicopter incident leaves kite surfer injured

[magic%20Ed]

Jumping: kiters stupidity/

Down burst: pilot stupidity!

We are talking about a girl who was missing, not drowning, talking about excessive measures...

Filing complaint: only if it leads to better judgement for/from both parties, not to get "justice".

[Jono 111]

Jumping: kiters stupidity/

Down burst: pilot stupidity!

We are talking about a girl who was missing, not drowning, talking about excessive measures...

Filing complaint: only if it leads to better judgement for/from both parties, not to get "justice".

For the edification of parents all over the world, when your child is missing at the beach, to the point where you have got emergency services involved, how do you know they are not drowning?

I'm really interested.....

[marina]

common sense seems to be a rare commodity these days....

[philipt]

Theres a sea king heli that flys over the areas where we kite a lot and they are loud, you certainly know its there.Its hard to know who would be to blame!

[FredBGG]

The accident happened around 7 p.m. yesterday. 8 kite surfers were surprised by a Seaking rescue helicopter that was flying very low above the ground. One kite surfer was making a big jump at the moment, when his parachute collapsed due to the strong winds caused by the helicopter. He fell a couple of metres down in shallow waters.

The man broke his heel bone and had to be rescued by fellow surfers. His club is considering filing a complaint. "We should also talk about this with the army. I am not saying the helicopter crew made a mistake, but they should be very careful to avoid accidents like this in the future", says Bram Degrieck, the alderman for Tourism in De Panne.

Helicopter or no Helicopter... you don't jump in shallow water unless you are OK with breaking a bone or two.

The Helicopter was searching for a lost child... if there is a Helicopter doing search and rescue... get the hell out of the way and let them do their work. One day they may be looking for you.

It's really pathetic that the kiters club wants to file a complaint.

What is also worrying is that if this kiter cannot see a helicopter the size of a truck before jumping he should not be jumping... probably can't see people in the water etc.
The Sea King is a 73Ft chopper and weighs 13,000 lbs

[FredBGG]

We are talking about a girl who was missing, not drowning, talking about excessive measures...

Let's see.... girl goes missing at a beach. There is a damn good chance that she is in the water and it does not take much for a child to drown.

I wonder if it was your daughter that went missing if you would still say that these were excessive measures.

[flyingweasel]

.

[Laughingman]

Unless the guy was jumping in order to gain a better feild of view to find the missing girl the guy is an idiot and deserves whatever he gets... Seriously. If there is someone missing every single soul on that beach or in the water should have been focused on finding that person. As Kiters we have the ability to cover vast amounts of space and assist in at least the search. There are times when Kiters were actually responsible for saving lives... And this guy decides to boost when the search helicopter is in range... Nothing like taking away from the search so the heli pilots can be sure not to get themselves tangled in this douch bags lines...
I hope the girl was found, if not it could be very well have been placed on the shoulders of those who are more inclined to have fun while everyone else is searching for a missing child.
It seems this "club" needs to get their priority straight...IMHO

[magic%20Ed]

For the edification of parents all over the world, when your child is missing at the beach, to the point where you have got emergency services involved, how do you know they are not drowning?

I'm really interested.....

Offcourse, you are never sure, but at a busy beach changes are really small that the girl is drowning. And if she is, changes are minimal that you can save her after finding.

rescueing does not come for free, it involves other risks, like kites getting injured. But a lot of other risks are involved (specially when using a seaking).

So from a statistical point of view I think searching for a lost girl on a busy beach with a seaking sounds like overkill and actually does more damage than good.

From a parent point of view: every sperm is sacred...

[JGTR]

Main problem seems to be the kiter jumping in shallow water.

If his CL failed and he fell to earth would he still have injured himself? Probably!

Out of 6 serious injuries I have heard of at my spot 5 have been due to the shallow water and heel/ankle injuries.