Horror footage shows an elderly hiker spinning around at a rapid speed in a hoist during a helicopter rescue in Arizona.
Video of the 74-year-old woman in an out-of-control spin as she is being flown for medication treatment on a stretcher went viral and was viewed millions of times after it was posted on ABC15's
Phoenix Fire Department responded to reports of the injured hiker Piestewa Peak, who had taken a ground level fall and sustained facial and head injuries.
She was put in a stretcher-like device that was lifted up from the ground to the helicopter.
Horror footage shows an elderly hiker spinning around at a rapid speed in a red hoist, (pictured), during a helicopter rescue in Arizona
The video, which lasted 1 minute and 50 seconds, shows the stretcher with the woman spinning rapidly as it is hoisted up.
The rate of rotation accelerated as the crew on the helicopter brought the basket closer to the rotors, ABC15 reported.
The crew's efforts to stop the spin was hampered as a line intended to stop the basket from rotating broke at one point.
The department's aviation unit held a press conference in response to the incident and claimed the woman had suffered no ill effects caused by the spin.
'Sometimes when we bring the helicopter up from the ground, [the basket] will start to spin,' said Paul Apolinar, chief pilot of the police department's aviation unit.
'We have a line attached to the basket that's supposed to prevent that. Today it didn't.'
Derek Geisel, who was piloting the helicopter during the rescue claimed that the line attached to the basket eventually broke and stopped working.
The spinning lasted for 40 seconds as the crew tried several times to raise and lower the basket.
The crew's efforts to stop the spin was hampered as a line intended to stop the basket from rotating broke at one point
