Helicopter Recovery 1, 2, 3

By George L. Nitti It’s not on a tower’s everyday checklist to encounter a recovery involving a helicopter. Some may seem so easy that towing companies might wish they had more to invoice on – a nice piece of change compared to those more conventional pickups from a motor club dispatch.  

Jerry Zehrung III, lead operator for Schofield, Wisconsin tow company Lightening Express Towing, said, “I never thought I’d have a helicopter hooked on the boom of our heavy wrecker. It’s just that you really never know what kind of call you’re going to get.” 

Zehrung relished the opportunity to sink his teeth into something just a little more offbeat than his day to day, finding his first-time helicopter recovery a bit of a thrill ride, literally. Bringing his 30-ton 06’ International on a Jerr Dan wrecker into the wreckage scene, a half mile ride on a piece of overgrown land once a landing strip, you might say he found it like a Safari ride, sans giraffes and elephants, cougars and hippos. Zehrung was having fun driving driving down a bouncy half mile trail on soft sand towards destination recovery. 

Upon arrival, a team from the anonymous helicopter company included a mechanic and trailer driver waiting on Zehrung to play his part in this recovery encounter.  

“It was a catastrophic failure,” said Zehrung. “The helicopter was 3000 feet (about twice the height of the Empire State Building) up in the sky before it had engine failure. The pilot had to do a steep dive to get the blades spinning really fast. Unbelievably, everybody walked away.” 

First things first, Zehrung got out of his wrecker and did a walkabout through the long, tall grasses in order to find a spot to position his wrecker. He didn’t want to plant it on a soft spot. 

“I wanted to make sure I could get the wrecker into position to lift the aircraft,” he said. 

Rigging would be no problem. The crew of the helicopter company had it under control, including concocting specialized rigging made of steel cable to hook onto the blades of the helicopter rotor.” 

“We told them that their having more knowledge of the aircraft that it would probably be better for them to rig to the helicopter and let us rig our tow truck to their rigging.” 

With everything under control, Zehrung was in command of the lift off, lowering his 19-foot stick to the helicopter rotor, and then attaching his winch line to the steel cable which was attached to the helicopter. All Zehrung had to do was lift up and put down the casualty onto the specialized trailer, as easy as 1, 2, 3. 

“It couldn’t have been more perfect the way that it landed,” said Zehrung. “The whole thing took about 45 minutes.Every now and then we get some pretty crazy stuff.” 

Indeed, recoveries often come in surprise packages. You never know what you’re going to get in that cracker jack box. Even a helicopter.