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‘Don’t wave at helicopters’: Wrong person rescued

A person is rescued by a helicopter at Second Valley on New Year's Day.

A person is rescued by a helicopter at Second Valley on New Year's Day. Photo: ABC/Gary Juleff

A rescue helicopter picked up the wrong person while searching for two men stuck on a dangerous cliff south of Adelaide on Tuesday night.

Adelaide man Jonathan Kovarch and his friend David Muggleton were taking “some nice photos of the sunset over at the cliffs at Second Valley” when they became stuck about 200 metres west of the local jetty on New Year’s Day.

The alarm was raised to emergency services around 7pm on Tuesday evening and a rescue helicopter was called in.

However, the helicopter accidentally picked up a woman on the same cliffs who waved to the helicopter, although she wasn’t stuck.

“Someone else waved at the helicopter and they went picked her up… she didn’t need to be rescued,” Mr Kovarch said.

So you shouldn’t wave [to] helicopters when they’re working.”

Mr Kovarch said they realised they were in trouble when he lost his footing on loose rocks in the area, and noticed they couldn’t get further up or down on the cliffs safely.

They called staff at the general store in town, which is about 90 kilometres south of Adelaide, before staff contacted emergency services.

“Turns out the area above us wasn’t as secure as below us, but it’s hard to go down and so we didn’t,” Mr Kovarch said.

“It is a little embarrassing but I’m glad we did it [called for help].

“It would have been silly to turn to try and push on or or head back. It would have been stupid.”

After the pair were winched to safety Mr Kovarch praised the “amazing” emergency service crews who assisted them.

“Once they found us they were very efficient and got us out of there very safely,” he said.

“It wasn’t scary at all.”

He told media at the scene that the photos which they managed to snap “weren’t worth it” and urged others to be cautious when climbing for photography.

“Stick to the trail. Do it safely. Use a drone. That way you don’t have to fall,” he said.

“Don’t go out on the cliffs and try and get nice photos.”

 

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