John Burt of the Ventura County Aviation Unit used a GoPro to capture his crew saving a woman from a car crash about 130 feet below him.
An 18-year-old woman from Ojai, Calif., was driving on the Pacific Coast Highway on June 9 when she lost control, the California Highway Patrol said in a statement. Her silver Mercedes-Benz plunged about 60 feet off a rocky hill and landed upside down in the ocean, Burt said. She cracked open her door to escape and clung to rocks as waves crashed against the shoreline, Burt said.
A bystander reported the accident near Malibu, Calif., around 1:10 p.m., and the county’s fire department rushed to the scene. Burt, a senior deputy with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, was at a Camarillo Airport hangar when the fire department asked for assistance minutes later.The fall from the highway is often fatal, Burt said.
After about two minutes, the driver was in the helicopter and flown to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. On Thursday, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said the driver was in stable condition. Burt said he has performed dozens of similar rescues after car wrecks and hiking accidents. Even when he was attending school to become a deputy sheriff in 2007, he loved watching the nearby aviation unit leave for a job and return after helping save someone’s life. After serving as a law enforcement officer and detective for more than a decade, Burt transitioned to working in rescue aviation in 2020.“Being able to be a small part in somebody’s life, no matter what it is, is rewarding,” he said.
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