The helicopter had been lifting heavy equipment from the roof of an industrial building.
It was March 13, 2011, in El Segundo, California. Steven E. Bull, 52, was at the controls of the commercial helicopter when the aircraft lost partial engine power.
The craft crashed to the pavement beside the two-story building.
It came to rest on its side.
Then it caught fire.
Bull was injured, unconscious, and still strapped into his seat. One of his arms was trapped in the wreckage. The cockpit was no longer a place built for control. It had become a confined space filled with fire.
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Timothy Elbridge West was working the job from the roof of the building.
West was 41 years old and a pilot. When the crash happened, he responded immediately with another man.
By the time West reached the helicopter, another coworker had already gained access to the cockpit and released Bull’s safety belt and shoulder harness. That helped, but it did not free him.
His arm was still trapped.
The flames were entering the cockpit from behind Bull.
West moved in anyway.
He extended his upper body into the cockpit and reached for Bull’s trapped arm. The space was tight. The pilot was unconscious. Fire was spreading behind him.
West pulled hard.
The arm came free.
Then West and the two other rescuers removed Bull from the cockpit and dragged him several feet away from the wreckage.
The timing mattered.
Soon after, flames grew quickly through the cockpit, cabin, and much of the fuselage. The fire consumed the craft’s two fuel tanks.
Bull was hospitalized for three days with injuries that included minor burns. He recovered.
The rescue was not one man acting alone, and the story does not need to pretend it was.
The first coworker gained access and released the restraints. West freed the trapped arm. Together, the men removed Bull before the cockpit was lost to fire.
That is how the sequence worked.
The helicopter was burning.
They solved the problem in pieces.
What He Did And Why It Is Worth Noticing
Timothy Elbridge West responded after a commercial helicopter crashed and caught fire, extended his upper body into the cockpit while flames entered from behind the unconscious pilot, pulled hard to free the pilot’s trapped arm, and helped drag him away from the wreckage.
That is what he did.
It is worth noticing because the pilot was not simply trapped by a seat belt. Those restraints had already been released. The remaining problem was physical entrapment inside a cockpit that was actively burning.
West addressed the exact obstacle that still kept Bull inside.
A helicopter crashed beside an industrial building. The pilot was unconscious, strapped in, and pinned by his arm. West reached into the burning cockpit and helped get him out.
That changed what happened next.
If the restraints were already off but one trapped arm still kept a man inside a burning cockpit, would you reach in and pull?