Mutual Aid NYPD In Nassau County for Boat Crash

[Gerard]

Dramatic pictures of NYPD Air Sea Rescue 12 providing mutual aid in Wantagh after a deadly boat crash. Looks like
they pulled out at least one victim and flew them to an LZ at a staging area.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nass ... -1.1500143 (http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/officials-2-dead-5-injured-as-boat-crashes-near-wantagh-1.1500143)

[cancidas]

not to be taken the wrong way, but do nassau or suffolk have any air assets that could do the job?

[mmedford]

not to be taken the wrong way, but do nassau or suffolk have any air assets that could do the job?

I believe they do...

I was under the impression that NC/SC-PDs and the NYPD...kinda had a gentlemen's agreement regarding providing support for each other...

[moose135]

not to be taken the wrong way, but do nassau or suffolk have any air assets that could do the job?
NCPD certainly has helicopters for medevac, but I don't know what their operations schedule is (they aren't airborne around the clock). It may be that NYPD had a helicopter airborne that could reach the scene quicker than launching one of the Nassau birds.

[moose135]

Actually, reading the story today, it appears that Coast Guard, NYPD and NCPD helicopters all participated in the rescue:

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nass ... -1.1500143 (http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/3-dead-as-boat-crashes-off-wantagh-1.1500143)

[T-Bird76]

Those pictures are far from dramatic....

This is a terrible accident but having been a boater on the south shore my entire life these accidents are far to frequent and generally not an innocent accident. At first glance one assumes boating the waters of the south shore is an easy task, its rather the opposite. The Great South Bay, South Oyster Bay, East and Mid bay are fraught with danger. Even during the day in clear weather you can easily run aground and if you are traveling at a decent speed you're going to get hurt or die. Last night there was a full moon so visibility on the bay was pristine and I doubt an issue. I'm sure excessive speed, perhaps drinking, and careless boating caused this to take place. I'm still amazed you don't need a boating license to pilot a boat. Spend one Saturday in July on the Great South Bay and you'll get a lesson in chaos like you've never seen before.

[engine46]

not to be taken the wrong way, but do nassau or suffolk have any air assets that could do the job?

Yes, they do. Nassau's helicopters are based at Bethpage, Suffolk's at Islip. When first arriving units (including two or three NCPD helicopters) realized the amount of injuries, they requested NYPD Aviation, as they can transport more patients than NCPD.

[cancidas]

Yes, they do. Nassau's helicopters are based at Bethpage, Suffolk's at Islip. When first arriving units (including two or three NCPD helicopters) realized the amount of injuries, they requested NYPD Aviation, as they can transport more patients than NCPD.
i know that nassau's bell 407s are little-capable, but do they have a hoist? what does suffolk fly? a-stars?

[Gerard]

Yes, they do. Nassau's helicopters are based at Bethpage, Suffolk's at Islip. When first arriving units (including two or three NCPD helicopters) realized the amount of injuries, they requested NYPD Aviation, as they can transport more patients than NCPD.
i know that nassau's bell 407s are little-capable, but do they have a hoist? what does suffolk fly? a-stars?

At least one of the NC 407s has a hoist http://www.helispot.com/photo/0003347

SCPD flies two AStars (#1 and 4), one MD902 Explorer (#2)and an EC-145 (#3). Both the Explorer and EC-145 have hoists.

NYPD Air Sea Rescue also has Scuba divers assigned to the unit full time.
In the dramatic :) video and pictures you can see the divers helping to off-load the aided.
That must have been some scene at Wantagh Park.
It also looked like they took the victims back to the staging area rather than direct to NUMC. At least the 412 did. Maybe they
wanted to stabilize them first? The four survivors are in pretty bad shape also.

[Gerard]

> I'm sure excessive speed, perhaps drinking, and careless boating caused this to take place.

Well according to witnesses excessive speed was a factor but WHY is still to be figured out. Maybe a mechanical
problem or medical?
Interesting that a few weeks ago I was driving over the Wantagh Bridge and looking out over the water where the accident
occurred and thinking the same thing, this is not easy to maneuver in the daytime, at night it must be exremely difficult
with all the marshy areas.

[Nick]

Yes, they do. Nassau's helicopters are based at Bethpage, Suffolk's at Islip. When first arriving units (including two or three NCPD helicopters) realized the amount of injuries, they requested NYPD Aviation, as they can transport more patients than NCPD.
i know that nassau's bell 407s are little-capable, but do they have a hoist? what does suffolk fly? a-stars?

This 407 I saw at the JB air show had a hoist. Pretty new bird too.
http://inlinethumb34.webshots.com/43617/2250379220069342955S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2250379220069342955HSJPEw)

[Gerard]

not to be taken the wrong way, but do nassau or suffolk have any air assets that could do the job?
NCPD certainly has helicopters for medevac, but I don't know what their operations schedule is (they aren't airborne around the clock).

I believe they are "down" between 11:30PM and 6AM BUT have a pilot (and AEMT?) on call during those hours with about a 45 minute
ETA. Not sure if that has changed and there is an agreement between Nassau and Suffolk Aviation units to support each other
in mutual aid. I actually saw a news conference detailing this agreement.
Someone else mentioned a "gentlemens" agreement between NYPD and NC. From my experience over the years watching, listening and
reading the airborne units in this region (NYPD, NC, SC, NJSPD, NYSPD, USCG) all are very supportive of each other and there is no
problem in calling another agency for help.

[fk6065]

NCPD aviation operates from 07:00 to 23:00 hours. During the off hours the pilot and technician are on call. It is generally at least a 60-90 minute wait until a bird goes airborne overnight.

SCPD aviation is in operation 24 hours a day. They too used to go out of service for the overnight. Then a few years ago, at least 8 maybe a little more, there was a bad accident in Dix Hills (?) on the Northern State Pkwy. The FD Chief asked for the SCPD for a med evac and was told they were off duty for the night and had a 2 hour eta for a call in.

The Chief who had a serious trauma that was heavily entangled in the auto needed to go to Stoney Brook Medical Center. He was looking at 45 minutes to extricate the patient from the auto. He had his dispatcher contact Westchester County 40 Control, the FD, to find out what the eta for a Life Star Med Evac from Westchester would be. They said approx 35-45 minutes.

He had them launch and just as the patient was removed from the auto the helo was landing. Patient went to Stoney Brook and lived. Suffolk County PD restored 24 hour aviation service a few weeks later.

NYPD was requested to assist last night because their helo's can transport more than one patient while Nassau's birds can only carry one. So with multiple trauma patients they needed all the help.

I believe the Coast Guard helo that eventually arrived was from Atlantic City.

[cancidas]

SCPD aviation is in operation 24 hours a day. They too used to go out of service for the overnight. Then a few years ago, at least 8 maybe a little more, there was a bad accident in Dix Hills (?) on the Northern State Pkwy. The FD Chief asked for the SCPD for a med evac and was told they were off duty for the night and had a 2 hour eta for a call in.
wow, pretty embarasing. to have air medical assets and not have them available 24/7 is downright foolish.

[Gerard]

NCPD aviation operates from 07:00 to 23:00 hours. During the off hours the pilot and technician are on call. It is generally at least a 60-90 minute wait until a bird goes airborne overnight.

SCPD aviation is in operation 24 hours a day. They too used to go out of service for the overnight. Then a few years ago, at least 8 maybe a little more, there was a bad accident in Dix Hills (?) on the Northern State Pkwy. The FD Chief asked for the SCPD for a med evac and was told they were off duty for the night and had a 2 hour eta for a call in.

The Chief who had a serious trauma that was heavily entangled in the auto needed to go to Stoney Brook Medical Center. He was looking at 45 minutes to extricate the patient from the auto. He had his dispatcher contact Westchester County 40 Control, the FD, to find out what the eta for a Life Star Med Evac from Westchester would be. They said approx 35-45 minutes.

He had them launch and just as the patient was removed from the auto the helo was landing. Patient went to Stoney Brook and lived. Suffolk County PD restored 24 hour aviation service a few weeks later.

NYPD was requested to assist last night because their helo's can transport more than one patient while Nassau's birds can only carry one. So with multiple trauma patients they needed all the help.

I believe the Coast Guard helo that eventually arrived was from Atlantic City.

Cool story. Thanks. Just one correction(sorry), LifeStar is from Connecticut and Stat Flight is from Westchester.

[moose135]

wow, pretty embarasing. to have air medical assets and not have them available 24/7 is downright foolish.
It's a question of budget and usage. If they get one or two calls a month at 2am, it's probably better to call on a neighboring service than staff up all night, every night when they don't get much use.

[Gerard]

wow, pretty embarasing. to have air medical assets and not have them available 24/7 is downright foolish.
It's a question of budget and usage. If they get one or two calls a month at 2am, it's probably better to call on a neighboring service than staff up all night, every night when they don't get much use.

Yup, especially In Nassau the money is probably the big issue. And with medevacs the time to hospitals especially in the late hours
wouldnt be so bad. Also we have the PD EAB where Suffolk has a much bigger response area, a lot of it what you might call "rural" and
medical response is (I believe) pretty much the vollies though some areas do have paid responders.

[cancidas]

It's a question of budget and usage. If they get one or two calls a month at 2am, it's probably better to call on a neighboring service than staff up all night, every night when they don't get much use.
i completely understand that, but it's still foolish that those in charge would let it be that the county doesn't have medical air assets at night because they don't want to pay for it. i'm sure that if it was some assemblyman's kid that got hurt bad in a motorcycle accident he's want to get him to a hospital ASAP. just show what government's priorities are....

[DHG750R]

I believe the Coast Guard helo that eventually arrived was from Atlantic City.

I have always thought about that when they closed the air station in NYC. I guess there are enough air assets to cover but so much for the golden hour, huh?

[engine46]

You also have to remember, Nassau and Suffolk are two different worlds when it comes to patient transport, especially for trauma victims. Nassau has far more trauma centers (NUMC, Winthrop, NSUH/Manhasset) than Suffolk (Stony Brook) so in Nassau, you have more options and can usually get to trauma centers faster than in Suffolk by ground, leading Suffolk to have a round the clock air operation while Nassau does not.

[Matt Molnar]

I have always thought about that when they closed the air station in NYC. I guess there are enough air assets to cover but so much for the golden hour, huh?
At some point I guess the feds decided protecting the coast is up to the individual states. There are now only 18 air stations covering 6000 miles of coastline (not counting Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or the Great Lakes).

[Gerard]

I have always thought about that when they closed the air station in NYC. I guess there are enough air assets to cover but so much for the golden hour, huh?
At some point I guess the feds decided protecting the coast is up to the individual states. There are now only 18 air stations covering 6000 miles of coastline (not counting Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or the Great Lakes).

With us its either the HH-60s from Cape Cod or the HH-65s from Atlantic City. Thankfully NYPD Aviation has a dedicated 24 hour Air/Sea
Rescue program that definitely takes up the slack from the closing of Air Station Brooklyn.
And dont forget Eagle 1 up in Connecticut...... http://www.eagle-1.org/index.html
The President of Sikorsky Aircraft volunteers as a pilot. :)

[NYCMedic]

You also have to remember, Nassau and Suffolk are two different worlds when it comes to patient transport, especially for trauma victims. Nassau has far more trauma centers (NUMC, Winthrop, NSUH/Manhasset) than Suffolk (Stony Brook) so in Nassau, you have more options and can usually get to trauma centers faster than in Suffolk by ground, leading Suffolk to have a round the clock air operation while Nassau does not.


Suffolk also has Huntington Hospital, Good Samaritan, Southside, and Brookhaven Hospitals as designated "Area Trauma Centers." They aren't as well equipped and staffed as the "Regional, or Level 1 Trauma Centers" mentioned in the quote above, but they do have the required services and specialists on staff 24/7. They just may not be able to handle multiple major trauma cases at one time.

[hiss srq]

Matt, in Nassau County you never more than five minutes to a hospital and max twenty to a trauma center. Its a waste of money to pay people the rediculous wages Nassau cops in the aviation department to A) sit around watching comedy channel eating doughnuts or B)piss jet A that does not need to be used at that time. On another note, NCPD frequently goes 24 hours during the summer during peak times when all yuppies from the city come to Long Beach etc..

[Gerard]

[quote="hiss srq"]Matt, in Nassau County you never more than five minutes to a hospital and max twenty to a trauma center.

Well remember that air medical is not their only function.

> Its a waste of money to pay people the rediculous wages Nassau cops in the aviation department to A) sit around watching comedy channel eating doughnuts

Dunkin Donuts, Tony Horton or Krispy Kreme? Try not to worry about what other people make. If they make good money. good for them. As a police officer and an airborne officer they go to work everyday with the possibilty of not coming home to their families.
I have no problem with them being paid accordingly.

PS - my father was an NYPD officer for over 31 years so you can see where my sentiment lies. :)