First helicopter hoist rescue

In November 1945, a terrible storm struck the East Coast of the USA, wreaking death and destruction on both land and sea. But two men (Captain Joseph Pawlik and crewman Steven Penninger), stranded on an oil barge in Long Island Sound off Fairfield, Connecticut, on 29 November, and in danger of being washed overboard by the high waves, were lucky. Helicopters were a relatively new technology and their life-saving capabilities only just being realized. In this case, a landing was impossible because of waves washing over the barge and so the men were hoisted to safety with a rope dropped from a Sikorsky R-5 helicopter that was hovering above, piloted by Jimmy Viner (Sikorsky's chief pilot), assisted by Captain Jack Beighle of the Army Air Force.

The first casualty (Penninger) was successfully hoisted up and taken ashore, as there was limited space inside the cabin. On the second lift of Pawlik (who as per tradition had remained with the sinking vessel to the last), the hoist jammed so he had to be flown back to shore while suspended around 30 feet (9 metres) below the helicopter.

Helicopters were starting to be used for military rescue missions at the tail end of World War II, including collecting people from behind enemy lines or delivering vital medical supplies. Perhaps the first civilian rescue took place in 1944, when a helicopter had landed on a sandbar in Jamaica Bay, New York, to pick up a stranded teenager, but this case on 29 November 1945 is the first-known helicopter rescue conducted without the aircraft actually landing.