Bury in sand to keep warm ??

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fujita yuji

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8112062.stm
Found this tale in the BBC website which I think quite hard to understand.
The pilot made a chopper crashed along beach and his passenger was quite injured.
He thought it will take some time for the rescue to come that he buried the passenger
in sand, as you can see in the picture listed on top of the news.
It is said that to avoid loss of heat of the injured man. :confused:

Is it wise to bury an injured man in sand ?
I think not, maybe a blanket and fire is more suitable.
It will make harder to recognize and control the state of suffering one.
What do you think?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.
 
Superficially seems strange, but then:

We don't know how far the pilot had to trek away before he could get his phone working. I'm guessing a fair way or he would have made the call before going through all that. And that he doesn't seem to have been there when the medics arrived. Yet both of them live in the absence of any useful salvage. Perhaps and second helping of mud and crocs was too chilling a prospect. If the pilot was one of those oddities that roam in jesus creepers and short trousers he may not have had that much about him to donate. We also don't know how much of a mind / body hit the pilot took. It may have been the best idea at the time with what he had to work with.



There's got to be more to it. Why no CASEVAC call first then buddy up on the body heat. Story needs expanding before I can conclude with anything useful.
 
from my experience sand is usually pretty cold, I have slept on sand at night and it was freezing.

having said that, maybe the sand there was warm
 
If the sun was strong, then the surface temperature would be hot. But one would think that an inch or two down it would be pretty chill. I've never heard of using sand as an insulator in that fashion before.
From advice I've had and books I've read on survival, they always recommend not sleeping on the sand, as it leeches heat away from your body. I've slept on beaches on a number of occasions, and at night it is definitely cold.
 
Quite so. My guess was that buddy had it in his head that exposure to something else was a more immediate threat than conduction through the sand. Lesser of two evils. It's certainly an unusual one.
 
Thanks, trentski and Chinpo.
What you said is exactly what I came to think of to see this news.

From my experience, I don't want to be buried when I got injured.
Sand is quite easily heated, which means it absorbs my precious heat quite well.
So all I want to know is if there is any case that sleeping in sand is desirable,
comfortable enough for person got quite injured.

Anyway, the passenger who got involved in that accident seems to be
rescued successfully, which is by no means a good thing.
 
I'm willing to bet that being cold was relative thing. considering the extreme danger the were in, I think the pilot was pretty resourceful. Although I wouldn't relish the idea of a saltwater croc chomping on my head while the rest remained buried!
 
I have text a mate in the Northern Territory Police, He is based in Darwin for more details.
But just from here ( where I sit all comfy ) They were already wet. An the only people who enter the water up there are tourist who think crocidile and aligators have the same attitude to humans. I don't know much about "gators but they seem to think of humans as curios. Crocs, I lived hunted and camped in croc country for 15yrs see humans as food and not much else.
So the casulty was already wet. they had made one trip to shore. I'd much prefer to take my chances with Hypothermia than swim out to the wreck ( presuming it was still on the surface it might and we don't know be in 50ft of water.) and risk seeing the inside of a croc handbag.
This isn't Canada I have a mate who has just got his PPL and when we spoke about safety items or survival packs he doesn't know of anybody who carrys anything on their person maybe a bag in the aircraft but not on their person. Remeber he was wrestling with an injured cas trying to get them to shore.
Carl
 
Interesting.

This seems like one of those situations where understanding the action really requires you to appreciate the state of mind of the individual who made it.

That being said, I have always thought that fire and emergency blankets are useful for keeping someone warm.

Whereas, burying someone in the sand is a useful way to hide the evidence. ;)

All the best,

- Mike
 
I don't know, maybe it would be the right thing to do if the above ground temperature was ridiculously cold. I'm guessing we are all thinking of playing in the sand at the beach, but that is usually on a hot day when the sand is going to be cooler in comparison to the hot air. Sand does a good job of insulating when cooking in it with coals, so the idea is not completely out there.

We need a desert survival expert to help us answer this. :)
 
2manyknives, thank you for additional information.

So there surely is a case it is better to be buried in sand.
Very informative and interesting.
 
These are both pretty interesting articles.. I never knew the weather got that cold in australia... At first I was thinking the reporter may have meant hypERthermia(too hot) rather then hypothermia(too cold)...

What's the avg temp down there ??
 
Sorry, Sand is very cold at night in the desert.I dug a body hollow when I was lost in the desert for 3 days when I was 15 years old.I thought the sand would insulate me but it made me cooler almost freezing.Mind you this was in the beginning of May in the mojave desert.I just kept moving to stay warm.
 
It actually makes pretty good sense if one feels that an insulator is necessary. I had a professor from Russia who showed us how even snow can provide insulating warmth. Twenty cm of snow can provide a substantial buffer from the cold around...I would assume that the sand provided the same, if not better, insulation from the elements. While not ideal, it is basically better than nothing...
 
The survivor was very lucky. Burying someone injured in wet sand is a very bad idea.
The only way I can think it would be beneficial, is if the injured needed core temp. to be lowered, in order to lower metabolism.
In this instance I can't imagine the benefit in burying in sand.
 
AR fan, I generally agree with you. That's because I started this thread.
But looks like it is generally considered that although quite exceptional,
it was nonetheless a good thing to do so by those who had seen this case in person.

This case is beyond my knowledge and imagination, and because of that it's very interesting
and informative to me.
 
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