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Erickson shows rescue cage Mail Tribune / Jim Craven An Erickson Air-Crane helicopter lifts the company's "emergency rescue vehicle" designed to rescue up to 60 people from disasters such as high-rise fires, downed aircraft, sinking ships or wildfires. Heavy-lift helicopter can pull up to 60 people off a burning building or a crash site in the ocean By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT - Paul Mavrinac maneuvers the great orange beast around the pinnacles of Table Rock, despite strong winds and pelting rain. The chief pilot for Erickson Air-Crane flies right over the heads of photographers perched on the plateau so they can get the perfect shot of the white basket dangling by a 200-foot line from the helicopter's belly. He sets the cage and its 10,000-pound payload on Table Rock and relaxes the line to open the gate. Photographers click cameras and roll video, wishing it were filled with rescued people instead of sandbags. Then Mavrinac lifts the world's most versatile helicopter higher above Table Rock to tighten the line and close the rescue rig's gate. He whisks it off the rock as if he were saving folks from a burning building. Erickson Air-Crane Wednesday morning demonstrated a rescue vehicle prototype it hopes to market to fire or police departments in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle or other metropolitan areas. The rescue basket that holds 60 people could be used to snatch stranded office workers from a skyscraper or pluck passengers bobbing in the ocean after a jetliner crash. "With the changes we're having in the world, this can be another tool in the arsenal for public safety," said Mavrinac, a Central Point resident who has flown Erickson's heavy-lift helicopters around the world for 23 years. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Erickson Air-Crane met with engineers who examine new products for the New York City Comptrollers Office. Erickson has also pitched its new product - $15 million for the helicopter and rescue rig - to city and county officials from the Los Angeles area. Erickson started building the rig four years ago at Japan's request, said Lee Ramage, Erickson's chief operating officer. But Japan's ailing economy put the project on hold. After thousands of office workers lost their lives when the World Trade Center was destroyed, Erickson decided it was time to bring the rescue rig out of the hangar. "This type of vehicle could be positioned like a fire truck at a station where it could be reached within a matter of minutes," Ramage said. "This system could be available within an hour radius of New York and also used in Philadelphia or Boston." It takes a strong helicopter to carry the rescue rig, which weighs 13,000 pounds fully loaded. Erickson's helitanker has a lift capacity of 20,000 pounds, and it can be used to fight fires with a 2,500-gallon tank, flexible hose snorkel and cannon that shoots water or foam at a rate of 300 gallons a minute. Pilot Mavrinac said the rescue rig would have been a life-saving tool during the 1980 fire at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas. Three local helicopter pilots flew through black smoke to rescue hotel guests stranded on a roof, one small load at a time. But 80 people died in the disaster. "If we would have had the rescue vehicle there, we could have saved more lives," Mavrinac said. And if it can work on Table Rock on a blustery day, it can handle a downtown disaster, he said. "Even in adverse conditions, with poor visibility, we would be able to control the load precisely." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.