When Rising Waters Left No Road Out

When record-breaking rain and flash flooding struck Los Angeles County and the high desert communities on Christmas Eve, roads disappeared beneath floodwaters, debris flows cut off access, and families suddenly found themselves trapped.

For the crews of the County of Los Angeles Fire Department, the mission was immediate: get to people who had nowhere else to turn.

As conditions worsened across Pinon Hills and Phelan, firefighters, pilots, aircrews, and maintainers launched into a relentless series of rescue operations leveraging Sikorsky S70i FIREHAWK® helicopters. Over roughly eight hours, crews completed 54 hoist rescues, reaching stranded residents where ground teams simply could not.

One mission stood out. Facing rapidly rising water, Copter 19 executed a precise "one-wheel" rooftop landing to extract three people trapped by floodwaters. In another rescue effort that same day, a single FIREHAWK crew hoisted 21 people from a stranded convoy.

By the end of the operation, LA County Fire protected more than 85 lives.

But missions like these begin long before takeoff. Behind every flight was a team ensuring aircraft remained available and ready to respond. Maintenance crews worked alongside pilots and operators to sustain a pace of operations that allowed rescue efforts to continue when every minute mattered.

For their extraordinary response, the Los Angeles County team received Sikorsky's Winged-S Rescue Award, recognizing the skill, coordination, and commitment required to execute complex rescue operations under pressure.

For the people waiting for help that Christmas Eve, the aircraft mattered. But what mattered more were the people inside them-the crews willing to fly toward the storm when others were trying to escape it.

That's what our customers can do.

With Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, Our Customers Can.