Thinking on the fly

There's only one thing I can think to say about this:

¡Puro San Antonio!

A medical helicopter missing half its landing gear came to a gentle rest on top of three mattresses during an emergency landing at San Antonio International Airport, where the aircraft was diverted after it struck a cellphone tower early Sunday.

Around 3:30 a.m., a PHI Air Medical chopper carrying one patient and three crew members hit a tower near Interstate 35 and Binz-Engleman Road, knocking off one of the aircraft's two skids, PHI spokesman Brad Deutser said.

...

[SAFD Captain Kevin] Campbell said the pilot, communicating through the airport's control tower, asked if firefighters had anything to put under the chopper so it could land.

... “He suggested mattresses, and I told Engine 23 to grab three or four mattresses from the dorm. We also brought out weights from our weight room to hold the mattresses down.”

...

“It was tense for a little bit,” Campbell said, “but we stacked the mattresses and weighted them down with four, 45-pound plate weights and he landed on top of it. It worked great.”

(from the Express-News)

Bonus strangeness: It sounds like that pilot has done this before! I don't know whether to be nervous or grateful for knowing that.