Incredible cliff rescue caught on camera: 'Nobody could see him'
Police have pulled off a remarkable cliff rescue after a fisherman spotted a man holding on for his life.
On Thursday afternoon, California Highway Patrol's Golden Gate Division Air Operations was called to Mussel Rock, in the San Francisco Bay Area, by the local fire department to help with a cliff rescue.
California Highway Patrol said a local fisherman had seen a man clinging to a vertical cliff with a 150-metre drop to the water.
Initially, rescuers had trouble locating the man due to his location.
“We had to do a short search because we weren’t sure where he was on the cliff. Nobody could see him,” Pilot Brent Marker told local news station KGO.
In the video shared on Facebook, the helicopter is seen making its way along the cliff trying to spot the man from above.
Once the man is located, the officer and paramedic, David Arias, was lowered down to the man, despite the "challenging" winds.
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Mr Arias said the man grabbed onto his legs when he was on the cliff with him and said doing so was "very dangerous".
"If I were to have swung away from him, he could have potentially fallen off the cliff,” he said.
Fortunately, Mr Arias was able to secure the man in a rescue harness and the two were short-hauled to a nearby landing zone.
Once safely on land, the man was treated by emergency personnel and was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
Mr Arias said the man "miraculously" only had a few scrapes and bruises
The man was reportedly very grateful to see the rescuers and seemed eager to get off the cliff face. It's not clear how the man ended up on the cliff.
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