Man Fatally Falls from Suspended Aircraft 1/12

Weird. Presumably he released his harness (either inadvertently or deliberately). I'm curious why he was hanging there for several hours without some sort of assistance arriving. Possibly not accessible by ladder-truck or bucket-truck, although one presumes the latter could get there for routine maintenance. Tragic.
 
A little off topic, but “assistance” isn’t as immediate as you come to believe.

I was first at scene of a small plane crash on a golf course, right outside Detroit. Medics took over 45 minutes after the phone call. The gentleman succumbed to internal injuries later that evening.

A good friend ejected right off the coast of San Diego, we all knew EXACTLY when he ejected. Was in the water for about 8 hours…. His raft failed, got hypothermia, no permanent problems.
 
That's a tough decision. Do you sit tight and wait for help as long as necessary -- knowing that if the aircraft falls from the lines you did less than everything you could to save yourself? Or do you unbuckle and try to help your situation? What could one possibly do for themselves in that situation? Lots of reason to believe that the pilot wasn't in a frame of mind to aid his rescue even if help had arrived. Aside from the fact that this happened in a rural part of NE AR, the terrain alone even in more populated areas underlying high tension power lines could be prohibitive in getting rescue equipment (boom crane with 150' reach?) on scene. There's a reason lots of pilots built their hours patrolling these sorts of infrastructure -- the utilities couldn't do it cheaper on the ground.

In this case, the report says that the pilot survived the initial wire strike, which suggests that he was at least communicating with someone, and would have an idea that help was en route, even if he didn't know when it would arrive. The rescue helicopter dispatched four hours after the incident, but knew to turn back after just 20 minutes? Where was it coming from? Little Rock is about 70 nm SE of Batesville.

Sad in several ways, not least of which was to have the pilot survive the impact, but die from the crash anyway. I don't mean this to sound glib, but anything you do can get you killed, including doing nothing.
 
My friend instructs in Powered Parachutes. He had a student who just couldn't get it. He told him to stop flying, but the guy continued without a license or signoff for solo. One day he crashed into a tree and got stuck. Someone called 911 and when the ladder truck was almost to him, he unbuckled his seatbelt and fell to his death!
 
Or do you unbuckle and try to help your situation?
Back in the day, the prevailing thought was to never unbuckle unless you are tied in with something else even when only a few feet off the ground. Unfortunately, there have been many a pilot and especially Stearman pilots who survived the initial incident and ended up flipped over only to unbuckle and fall breaking their neck.
 
Reminds me of the Nov 2022 accident where a Mooney (N201RF) was on an RNAV approach to KGAI and impacted and remained stuck in a large power line transmission tower at about 100 ft AGL. Pilot and passenger spent a chilly 7 hours trapped in the aircraft before rescue.
 
Reminds me of the Nov 2022 accident where a Mooney (N201RF) was on an RNAV approach to KGAI and impacted and remained stuck in a large power line transmission tower at about 100 ft AGL. Pilot and passenger spent a chilly 7 hours trapped in the aircraft before rescue.
My daughter and her family live near there and was without power as a result of that incident.
 
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