09/25/2019
Yesterday Keiling Tree Care was called upon to do something out of the ordinary. Owner Keith Keiling, who is also a captain on the Bernardsville Fire Company, heard on his fire radio about a plane crash that had just occurred a few towns away. As the incident unfolded, Keith realized that the rescue of the pilot was going to be a huge challenge. The plane was stuck approximately 75 feet off the ground in the top of a tree. The crash site was more than 500 feet off the closest road, through a heavily wooded area. Rescuers on scene were working to clear a path to the plane and develop a plan of how to get the pilot safely to the ground. Keith contacted the Bernardsville Fire Chief and offered the use of our new, specialized bucket lift that is mounted on tracks and can go places that a typical bucket truck cannot get to. Several months ago we had purchased this lift that is commonly known as a spider lift. It can fit through a 36 inch wide gate, can hold up to 500 pounds in the bucket, and can reach 87 feet high. Most truck mounted tree bucket trucks are 55 or 65 feet working height.
The rescue technicians on scene had ruled out the possibility of a helicopter hoist from above as they were worried that the helicopter’s rotorwash might dislodge the plane from the tree. The next best alternative was to utilize tree climbing equipment and ropes and harnesses to get up to the plane and try to get the pilot out.
Keith sent photos and specifications of the bucket lift to the incident commanders who requested that it be brought to the scene. Keith and his brother, Bobby Keiling arrived with the lift at the command post about 30 minutes after getting the request. The rescuers had cleared a path of all trees to the area where the plane was. Bobby was able to bring the lift into the area and set it in a safe position for it to reach the nose of the plane. It was decided that Bobby would go up in the bucket and clear any branches of the tree that were in the path that the bucket needed to travel. He then spoke briefly with the pilot and told him that a rescue technician would be coming back up in the bucket to help get him out of the plane. Once back on the ground, the rescue technician was secured inside the bucket, and Bobby skillfully was able to operate the bucket using the remote control from the ground to position the rescuer a few inches from the nose and wing of the plane. The rescuer was able to break the windshield and pass a safety harness to the pilot inside the plane. A rope was then used to secure the harness to the bucket. The pilot was then able to climb out of the windshield and into the bucket. Bobby then slowly was able to bring both of them to the ground safely.
From the time we were asked to respond, to the time that we had the pilot on the ground was just over 2 hours.
The teamwork between all responding agencies was seamless. I am thankful that the incident commanders trusted our equipment and abilities to help safely mitigate the situation.
Glad that we could help with this very tricky emergency.
