Heart-stopping video captures the moment a man was rescued by helicopter from a 500-foot cliff amid high winds in California.
The rescue operation was underway on Thursday as the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) Golden Gate Air Defense said a local fisherman reported seeing a man stranded on Mussel Rock. .
The coastal formation is about 8 miles south of downtown San Francisco and has an almost vertical cliff face 500 feet high. The agency said the man was trapped about halfway through.
An H-30 helicopter was dispatched to rescue the man, which rescue agencies consider the safest option considering his location. High wind speed during the rescue.
“We had to do a short search,” pilot Brent Marker told ABC7. “We weren’t sure where he was on the cliff we couldn’t see him.”
He was eventually located and a video released by CHP shows the man, wearing only swimming shorts, straining himself on the rock.
Sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and the California coastline can also be seen in the clip, which was captured by a camera mounted on a CHP officer’s helmet.
The officer was seen descending from the helicopter level with the man and tied him to a harness. The agency said both the man and the CHP officer were removed from the cliff face and to a nearby safe landing pad. Fire officials were then responsible for his care.
No injuries were reported and it is unclear how the man got stuck on the cliff, or how long he was there.
CHP’s Golden Gate aviation operations unit is based at Napa County Airport, and patrols nine Bay Area Counties.
