18 May 2011

Using a helicopter to remove rockfall debris part 2: another great video!

Posted by Dave Petley

A couple of years ago I posted a short piece on the old blog about operations in Norway to clear potential rockfalls from steep cliffs through the use of the a large (4000 kg) weight suspended beneath a helicopter.  This remains one of the most extraordinary landslide management approaches that I have seen.  Youtube now has a video, which should be visible below, that provides additional, higher quality footage of this operation:

Take a look – it is amazing!  In addition to the rockfall removal, which must require extraordinarily skillful flying from the pilots, the video also features the use of waterbombing to remove debris from the cliffs.  Finally, the middle of the video also has a section that shows the remarkable effectiveness of an engineered rockfall barrier in arresting large blocks that have detached from the cliff.