Laptop Falls From Helicopter, Just Misses Boy

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (WCCO) ―


Ten-year-old Grayson Peterka has pictures to back up his story about how a laptop fell from a medical helicopter and landed within inches of hitting him.

CBS

One more step and this 10-year-old's story would be different. A laptop fell from a helicopter and landed inches away from him.

The boy was spending some time at a family cookout Saturday night when a medical helicopter was leaving St. Cloud Hospital. Somehow the crew left its laptop computer on the helicopter's skid.

"It fell about here and I was standing right here," said 10-year-old Grayson Peterka.

Grayson has pictures to back up his story about how a laptop fell from a medical helicopter and landed within inches of hitting him.

"I heard the helicopter going by. It was pretty low and then they made like a turn. When that happened it fell to the ground," he said.

Grayson said the computer made a loud sound when it hit the ground, almost like a gunshot. The 10-year-old's aunt was nearby when she heard the same noise.

"'What's that?' It was really loud and not more than two seconds later my little nephew comes around the corner and says 'Auntie Laura, something just fell out of the sky and it almost hit me,'" said Laura Colon.

Colon said she went to take a look and couldn't believe her eyes.

"We came around the side of the garage here and we found a laptop and it was most definitely something that fell. It was busted up pretty good. I looked on the back and I saw Life Link and I said 'No way, that doesn't happen,'" said Colon.

The computer fell in the alley behind Colon's home. It sits three blocks and across the Mississippi River from St. Cloud Hospital.

Hospital officials said Life Link III had just landed with a patient and was leaving the helipad when the crew's computer was left on the helicopter's skid.

Colon called the hospital and within minutes a security guard was at her door.

"They came over with the flight nurse and they were very apologetic," said Colon.

Although the crew retrieved the computer, pieces of it still remain in the alley. Grayson's father said it's a sober reminder of what could have happened.

"At first you think its kind of humorous and then you think about it for a little bit and you go 'Wow, he could have really got hurt,'" said Mike Peterka.

Grayson was not hurt and he remembers the incident with a smile. He says he can't wait to show pictures to his friends at school on Monday.

Grayson's family said they know how important the work Life Link crews do and they know leaving the computer on the helicopter's skid was an honest mistake. The family is glad no one was hurt.

St. Cloud Hospital is investigating the incident. Grayson's family was told to expect a call from the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA will also be looking into what happened.


But does the Toughbook still work?

 

holding it by the lid, it appears to still be pretty much in "one piece" configuration.

 

Is this from April
We had two threads on this

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/477285-warranty-do-toughbooks-fly.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/477081-flying-toughbooks.html

 

I did a google site search on helicopter and it didn't come up.
Sorry to be redundant.

 

Its fine

I still have the search tool ,and I had 6 hits

 

Apparently I am blind and redundant. It does come up as Flying Toughbooks.
Hey, what about a sticky of a locked thread with nothing but Azrials or whoever's Google site search? It would make for a lot less clicking.
Now I search for Azrial's posts and use his link. I could go to Google and click on advanced search, but 1 direct link would be nice.

 

I added the goggle search tool in the resource sticky a month ago
I guess know-one reads the stickys lol
Its the one I use ,covers the whole of NBR
I am not sure on this but you might be able to bookmark it

 

I have created an xml search that creates a NBR/Panasonic Google search in Firefox's drop down search engine menu. I used the Mycroft Project to create this.

I removed the attached file because it has a couple of bugs. It needs to have some search term in the box. If you leave it blank, it tilts and gives me a blank Firefox screen

If someone wants to tinker, I will send it to you.

 

Why would anyone do that? It would make way to much sense...