Hoisting victims from water, land, and other vertical extraction situations is challenging and often requires active victim participation. To solve this and other extraction problems, Vita Aerospace has unveiled the Pelican Rapid Extraction Device (RED), developed by Air Rescue Systems, which Heli-Expo attendees can see for the first time at the Vita exhibit.
The impetus behind the development of RED was to create a new category of device that is not only user-friendly but also doesn’t require the victim to be able to hold on, according to Vita Aerospace executive v-p Matt Christensen.
“Unlike traditional collar or strop devices used in water rescues,” the company explained, “the Pelican eliminates the ‘double lift’ process and the risk of losing victims during extraction while minimizing the physical and psychological impact on rescuers and survivors. There’s no need for active victim participation.”
“It’s a multi-environment rapid extraction device,” Christensen said. “It was waterborne at first. Then we found out it does a really good job inland. You could use it in a technical rescue, with the fire department. It's kind of collar-light, but it's fully encapsulating; it can handle a 35-pound child and up to a 400-pound adult.”
Features of Pelican RED include a keylock system with “haptic feel for secure closure, allowing for quick and easy deployment even with cold or wet hands; compatible with attended or unattended victims; [and] water rapidly flows through the mesh to minimize excess weight during water-borne operations.”
“[The rescuer] doesn't have to manipulate a carabiner or anything to close the device,” he added. “And once the victim’s in, they can be unconscious, injured, hypothermic, [or] some other reason, and they simply ride in the device; they don't have to hold on.”
Air Rescue Systems and Vita Aerospace, which is part of Vita Inclinata Technologies, are giving live demonstrations of the Vita Rescue System, which gives rescuers precision control of the rescue device on the hoist, as well as RED. Air Rescue Systems is also highlighting its cut-resistant Gauntlet hoist operator glove.