Crash - Cont'd

.......... I'd watched over the handling of probably 60 crash survivors. As I said, I'd intervened medically in the case of 17. I'd had my tasks set for me by the scene commander, and was performing my duties as best I could, under the circumstances.As I started backing away from the weenies, I turned and, for a brief moment, began processing what I'd been involved in for the last hour or so. A plane had run out of gas and fell from the sky. (The run out of gas portion I wouldn't find out and connect until days after the crash when the air to ground transmissions were reviewed, and context was added by the introduction of the in-cabin black-box recordings.) I was, for the moment, somewhat free to begin clearling my head take a physical perspective look at the over-all scene. This didn't help at all. It was strangely surreal. (I realized weeks later that it was at this moment that my brain began to short-circuit.)I passed the pile of bodies that had been placed in the area I had designated earlier. Just before the FBI intervened, and with a mounting body count and need for expedience, the firemen had taken to bringing the bodies to the pile. Initially they were able to place the bodies side by side. Then it was full, and with no other area available they started to make a pile. One on top of the other. This was disturbing to me. I had a mental image flash to the fore-front of my conscious thought. Recently, further images had been released on news reports from Nicaragua, where the death squads had operated. They'd gone around and killed many people at once and tried to hide the bodies in mass graves. One of those images resembled this, but of course, this pile was made out of necessity and with as much respect as could be offered. (At the top of the pile was a child's very mangled body.)As I got further away from where I'd been staged, flashlight asked if I was okay. I said "yeah, just a bad night." He responded with something that held me together through the remaining hour I was there..." No shit Sherlock." I had to crack a smile, my statement hadn't been the most brilliant observation around. We were dirty, covered in all sorts of bad, and had just nearly gotten arrested due to a nose to nose incident with the FBI.We passed the poor homeowners front door. It was open, shades drawn wide, lights on. The police were inside looking like they were interviewing him. Flashlight said "I wonder what in god's name this guy is going to say to his insurance carrier..."Ummm, my house was hit by a plane. I need to have a tow company or somthing come out and haul it away." I tried and failed to imagine the call center employee handling that one. Then we came to the rear of the house and found triage full. We'd been here an hour and triage was still full? This was bad, very bad in fact. What the hell was going on?People were being carried down the hill on backboards by teams of six. "What the Fu#@! Where are the ambulances." We had access to hundreds of ambulances in the county, we needed at least 200 by my impression if the injured were taken out individually. Where was the screw up? We headed over to the triage supervisor to find out what in heavens name was going on."We're trying to get people out, but have only successfully transported about 20. There are vehicles blocking the streets coming in and that stupid satellite truck is still in the way so any rigs that can make it through to this side street can't make it the last 1/4 mile." "Holly Shit," I said aloud. I then asked "You have somebody working that?" He said, "yeah, I found an NCPD Highway cop and he ran off with his hand on his gun." ((I later heard 2 versions of a 'story' on how that truck was moved. One had it that the cop threatened the crew at gun point to which they immediately moved it to a spot where it got lodged in the mud and needed to be towed away 2 days later. The other was where a FD heavy rescue truck had nosed into the TV truck and proceeded to force it off the road enough for ambulances to get through.) Personally, I like either version)) As I had left the fuselage site and re-entered the triage area I had noticed, about 40 yards away, that this house had a respectable 'yard' that had been cleared of all trees. Relatively clear of any obstructions it seemed to be kept nicely and had grass planted. By my rough estimates, the yard was about 75'x75', and had very large oak and pine trees ringing it. Other than that, there were no obstructions on it at all. It also leant itself to be a parking area for some of the initial emergency vehicles.I asked "can medevac's get in there? What about the weather?" I was told that the NCPD Air Bureau had tried to land a helicopter a few times but the clearing wasn't judged to be large enough and the fog had krept in and brought the ceiling down below approved FAA flying levels. Shit I thought, this was shaping up to be be even harder on the injured and dying than I'd first imagined. The injured would now need to be hand carried past the TV truck to van type ambulances (box ambulances couldn't get through at that time due to the parked cars blocking the access roads a mile away - when compared to each other, box ambulances were about 2' wider than van types.) Hand carrying the injured 1/4 mile was slow, and van ambulances also had a drawback of not having that additional interior floor space where ambulatory patients could be placed for the trip to the hospital.Then a very loud and hulking helicopter appeared overhead. A spot light came on blazing from the sky and literally blinded everyone on the ground. It sounded like a military helicopter had arrived and was taking in the scene from above. I'd thought the county executive was here and making himself a pain. No sooner had I finished that thought than watched as a HUGE Bell helicopter transitioned into a hover and began to settle into this tight clearing. Closer and closer it got. It hesitated a bit, then lowered all the way to the ground. I swear I saw leaves and tree branches being cut away by the helicopters spinning rotors. I couldn't believe my eyes. When it set down and cut its spot-light, the ambient light in the area illuminated the markings. "Way to go NYPD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" We all jumped for joy, then ran to its side door, released it and slid it open on its track. The pilot looked at me and said "I heard someone needed air transport. I was in the area getting Pizza and thought I'd come and take a look. Bring me four stretchers and any who can walk..." I turned and was about to wave for assistance, but found many had thought much faster than I. There was an immediate stream of people flowing towards the craft. We got them loaded and shut the doors and before we could be away from the zone, he'd spun up the engine and was lifting off. This one pilot did a remarkable thing. Not only did he and his crew take it upon themselves, unauthorized (so I was later told), to launch from their HQ at Floyd Bennet Field (near JFK Airport), AND fly in very bad weather to get to us, AND then land in this landing zone that no local chopper thought possible. They, more importantly, showed their bravado. Once the locals saw this, they weren't going to be shown up by an outside department. Higher-ups got on their raidios begged, pleaded and admonished their underlings to get the local choppers to come in. 2 NYPD choppers had landed in succession and were taking people away to local hospitals, without the involvement of the locals who knew the area better. Within minutes, not to be shown up more than they'd already been, here came the NCPD, SCPD, more NYPD craft, Life-flight from Ct also arrived. All bouyed (and trounced) by the fact that the biggest and most lumbering of all helicopters (and one awesome pilot) had shown them up and done the deed first, they knew they could (had to) now do it. I'd swear that as each chopper would take off their blades would just miss the skids of the next incoming chopper. I think the longest break between choppers getting in and out was 5 minutes. I also believe all but 1 'immediate' patient was taken out by chopper, and then all 'Amber' patients were taken out this way as well.Here I'll take a break and relate another story that went around, though because I didn't see it happening for myself, I can't vouche for its accuracy, other than to say I did see ambulances, police and fire vehicles with NYC markings on them at or near the scene....The side-by-side counties of Nassau and Suffolk have a 'mutual aide' policy in place. It says that if asked, the two counties will combine resources and help one another in time of emergency need. Similar agreements are in place between NYC and Nassau as well. Oyster Bay was pretty much on the border between Nassau and Suffolk, so a good many resources were sent from both areas. New York City (NYC) is still close, 15 miles, I'd say, by road. NYC listens in to all of Nassau's communications. By NYC I mean the individual ambulances and fire stations. (I'm sure communications/dispatch also eavesdrops every now and again as well.) A great deal of those workers live and volunteer in Nassau and Suffolk. Whenever any large incident happens in Nassau, you inevitably start seeing NYC EMS ambulances and NYFD, NYPD assets showing up unannounced.This night was no different. I was told that NYC had received a call from Nassau asking for some ambulance assets. NYC in turn dispatched 5 ambulances to the scene. Well, by the time these 5 ambulances had arrived in Oyster Bay (4 miles away from the 'Cove') they had grown in numbers to 20, not including 9 highway police cruisers giving escort and running traffic clearing, and 10 pieces of fire apparatus. (All but those first 5 ambulances were now 'freelancing.') Once they made the turn out of Oyster Bay proper, they made another 3 miles and encountered local ambulances waiting in line because no one could get past all of the cars parked on the non-existent shoulders. Without being asked, the NYFD and the highway police went to work. They didn't care about vehicles at all, they had a task to do and were going to do it. (In NYC, if a car is parked in front of a fire hydrant or in front of a burning building, the firemen will do whatever is necessary to remove that obstacle. If its breaking all the windows of the car to pass hoses through, or mangling the car to get it out of the way, they do it without a thought. This is exactly what they started doing.) First the highway cars with huge and sturdy push bumpers mounted to the cars nose went to work. Slamming into these obstacles and bulling them into the woods or worse yet, the bay. 37 cars and 3 TV trucks got very wet and banged up. The firemen, not to be out-done by their sheilded brethren, physically over-turned and toppled another 12 vehicles BY HAND.It was around the time that I saw an NYPD police cruiser pulling toward Triage that I realized box ambulances were now arriving up the hill near Triage to start taking patients. Could it have been a coincidence? Sure I guess..................