A 21-year-old man who fell more than 50 feet down a San Pedro cliff Friday, was critically injured and rescued by firefighters using an aerial ladder truck to lower a stretcher basket to pick him up.
The rescue operation began about 1:50 a.m. in the area of 690 W. Paseo Del Mar, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Middleton.
Air Operations was unable to send a helicopter to the rescue due to low cloud cover, so an aerial ladder truck and an LAFD Urban Search and Rescue team were sent to do the job, Middleton said.
Video from the scene showed a firefighter and stretcher basket being lowered down the cliff and the basket emerging with the patient on board.
The patient was transferred to a gurney for the trip to a hospital. He fist-bumped firefighters on the way to the ambulance.
How he fell from the cliff was not available, Middleton said.