Training - Natalie Portman

When training we are given hypothetical ‘Rescue Scenarios’.
For instance:-

“You arrive on scene to find a man in his 50’s has collapsed, you are told he has a history of epilepsy”

“You arrive on scene to find a scuba diver who has pains in his arms and feels nauseous”

It’s a good way of training and allows a number of options to be tried and discussed so that we are on form for a proper incident.
Last night we were doing some training on vertical lifts using the quad pod. Brian and Nick were tasked as cliff man and cliff top safety officer. Ian had obviously run out of rescue scenarios so did his best to make one up…. “You arrive on scene to find a packet of Jaffa cakes at the bottom of a mine shaft”.

Now Brian is no stranger to biscuits and immediately set about rigging up, however in conducting a risk assessment Nick argued that he wouldn’t send Brian down an abandoned mine for a packet of Jaffa cakes. A good point we thought which rather scuppered Ian's training session. That prompted a short debate about when you would go down a mineshaft.

Brian suggested that he would take that risk if actress and Oscar winner for her roll in Black Swan – Natalie Portman was stuck on the bottom. He could not decide whether she would be wearing the black or white Swan costume. We explained that this was his fantasy rescue scenario and he should choose for himself.

Natalie Portman in Mine Shaft Rescue

Needless to say Brian wore full personal protection equipment to recuse Miss Portman who was brought to surface using a z-drag rope configuration.