One of Rick's Black Swans
Rick posted a thread earlier today about "Black Swans" - foreseeable disastrous events that could have been prevented with little planning and a few dollars.
In this case, three deaths from cold water immersion could have been prevented. Crashing or landing in cold water was clearly a foreseeable event for the people on this helicopter, yet there's no mention of any cold water survival suits being worn nor a small inflatable raft aboard. The suits are not overly cumbersome, the rafts take up almost no room, and the price of this gear is miniscule compared to the cost of operating a helicopter in the Arctic. We carried similar gear IN THE SUMMER on the ocean off of Cape Cod, knowing that hypothermia can set in quickly, leading to death, even in the month of July off the coast of New England.
Suits: Mustang Ocean Commander Suit http://lrse.com/Mustang-Ocean-Commander-Suit.html
Raft: MOM600 Throwable Rescue Platform http://lrse.com/MOM600-Throwable-Rescue-Platform.html
Post-mortem suggests men survived Arctic helicopter crash, died in water
http://globalnews.ca/news/847191/post-mortem-suggests-men-survived-arctic-helicopter-crash-died-in-water/
