Durban — A 16-year-old skydiver had to be rescued from a tree after strong winds pushed him into it.
Start Rescue spokesperson Warren Brauns said that on Wednesday afternoon, at approximately 3pm, Start Rescue was activated for a sky diving incident. It was reported that a skydiver had become tangled around nine metres up in tall trees in the Camperdown area.
“On arrival, Start Rescue, together with Start partner Netcare 911, SAPS Search and Rescue, Mi17 and local farmers worked to put a plan in place to free the 16-year-old male skydiver who got pushed into the trees due to strong winds,” Brauns said.
“With teamwork on the ground, a successful rescue operation took place and managed to free the skydiver and get him safely back down on the ground unscathed,” he said.
SA Weather Service forecaster Thandi Gumede said that the closest weather station to Camperdown was in Pietermaritzburg.
She said that between 2pm and 3pm, the wind speed was 11.5km/h, between 3pm and 4pm, the wind speed was 12.6km/h and between 4pm and 5pm the wind speed was 11.52km/h.
Last month, Start Rescue was involved in many different aspects of readiness for December, with the festive season approaching fast.
“A training exercise was simulated based on a live call-out, where the teams were requested to meet at the Start headquarters for briefing and then deployed to a construction area for a structural collapse with an unknown number of casualties. K9, medical, high angle as well as 1st responders, Start partner Netcare 911 Rescue and ALS paramedics were dispatched to the call,” Brauns said.
He said the team worked well into the night, locating people, applying the required treatment and implementing extraction and triage to the staging area.
“This team is growing day-by-day, the commitment and growth can be seen in the training environments where they get ready to serve the public, complete strangers in the need of Search and Rescue to save lives,” Brauns said.
Daily News