Black Hawk Down
.. here some real sounthern hospitiley.....
SCOTTS VALLEY -- Tom Inderkum and his wife Karole Ward watched a rapidly progressing fire from their yard on Scotts Valley Road in Lakeport at about 4 p.m. on Friday, when the action landed smack-dab in front of them literally. A UH-60 Black Hawk based out of Los Alamitos was traveling from the 16 Complex Fire to the Scotts Fire to make a water drop. The crew ended up making a forced landing, also called a precautionary landing, following mechanical problems, according to Jason Sweeney, public affairs officer for the California National Guard.
When the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Bruce Delara Pulgencio, landed the Black Hawk, he knew from extensive
training and 27 years of experience this was a critical situation. The master
warning light came on and within seconds Pulgencio was heading in for a soft landing, descending 2,500 feet with the Black Hawk.
"I have had many emergencies and this is one that gets your attention," Pulgencio said. "There are two types of emergencies that are really critical. One is losing a rotor blade and two, the type of emergency we had, transmission failure, is something you can't second-guess. There's no place you can pull over in the sky. You have to act fast so you don't become a lawn dart." A pilot, co-pilot and crew chief from the 1st/140th Aviation Battalion Air Assault of the Army National Guard and a CAL FIRE helicopter manager were aboard the Black Hawk. There were no injuries, but the Black Hawk remains guarded in the pasture where it landed. It will be disassembled and removed by truck.
"The extent of the damage was severe enough to have to truck it out," Pulgencio said.
When the crew landed Inderkum greeted them saying, "Hey, you missed the lake by a couple of miles." Pulgencio said Inderkum and Ward were fantastic. "She came out with watermelon and lemonade. They were very neighborly, especially seeing as we were sitting on their
front lawn uninvited," Pulgencio said. "Now they have the most expensive lawn ornament on the block."
Inderkum said he was just glad they landed safely, because, "After all they are fighting fires to protect folks like us and our property."
Pulgencio said, "We work extremely well with CAL FIRE as a team through extensive training. These are two entities from different professions that work as one.
Inderkum said it was "pretty cool to be the only kid on the block with a Black Hawk in his front yard." As for the Pulgencio and the crew, they got a replacement helicopter and continued to work the Scotts Fire.
:beer::beer:
