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Sarasota County Sheriff's Office unveils new helicopter
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has a new helicopter, and it's helping their crews respond to hard-to-reach places. FOX 13's Kimberly Kuizon reports.
SARASOTA, Fla. - The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has a new helicopter, and it's helping their crews respond to hard-to-reach places — getting deputies where they're needed for hoist rescues.
The backstory:
The sheriff's office first saw the need for the new helicopter when Hurricane Ian hit the area three years ago. They said so much flood water inundated areas like North Port that some boats and even high-water rescue vehicles couldn't get to some homes or residents.
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"It was at Hurricane Ian where the idea of this started through the process of getting the funds from the county," said Chief Pilot David Bouffard with SCSO.
Big picture view:
Deputies with the aviation section are continuing training for when they're needed.
"We can do those rescues where we can’t get ground personnel to or land the helicopter," said Bouffard.
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The Bell 429 helicopter with twin engines not only makes it safer for the crew, but allows them to respond immediately when needed.
"Hoist training is completely different for everybody. It’s kind of an eye-opener," said Bouffard.
The pilot and hoist operator work together and guide one another in.
"It's an attempt to use physics to our advantage so that we keep whoever is on the end of the line out of the worst turbulent air below the helicopter. If the helicopter is moving, it tends to stabilize that load," said Bouffard.
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Why you should care:
The helicopter comes with additional benefits and can help in missing persons' cases and even crimes in progress.
"This one can fly a lot higher, which makes it a lot quieter if we do fly higher. On the front of it, we have a larger camera system that is great. We can read license plates at 1,000 feet, so it really helps with patrol getting good descriptions of a person and determining if we have the right suspect or not," said Bouffard.
Training continues as they perfect their skills to answer any call.
"We're not trying to replace any of the other assets. If we had a large-scale incident, the national guard and coast guard would come out, but we will be working along tandem with them, but our advantage is we are a quicker response," said Bouffard.
The Source: Information was gathered through the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office by FOX 13's Kimberly Kuizon.