FAIRFIELD – The Penfield Reef has had its place in history for an event that took place on Nov. 29, 1945. Thanks to the quick thinking of Fairfield and Bridgeport police and the ingenuity of Sikorsky Aircraft, a Lockheed Martin Co., it is forever known as the birthplace of helicopter air rescue.
That’s because on that date Sikorsky Chief Test Pilot Dmitry “Jimmy” Viner and U.S. Army Capt. Jackson Beighle carried out a harrowing rescue of two members of an oil barge that broke away from a tanker off the Fairfield coast and hit the Penfield Reef.
“Pilot Dmitry (Jimmy) Viner and Capt. Jackson Beighle dropped a hoist that had never been used before in a crisis,” said Fairfield First Selectperson Christine Vitale during a plaque commemoration at the Penfield Pavilion on May 15. “They lifted the two men off the barge and delivered them to safety right here on Penfield Beach. Two lives were saved that day thanks to the courage and innovation of the Sikorsky team as well as the resolve of the Fairfield community.
“I’m sure the first selectman at that time, Clifford Johnson, was very proud. I know I am.”
Vitale joined officials from Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft, members of Viner’s family, the town’s director of community services and a representative from the Vertical Flight Society in marking the 80th anniversary of the first helicopter hoist rescue in aviation history. The plaque has been placed on an exterior wall of Penfield Pavilion, which overlooks the spot on the beach where the oil barge team was rescued.
The impact of that rescue is still felt to this day in the aviation world. During 2025, Sikorsky helicopters saved 5,926 lives, according to Steve Schmidt, vice president of engineering & technology at Sikorsky. Of those, 957 were performed using a hoist. The Coast Guard flies our JayHawk helicopters. Since 1990, they’ve saved more than 12,300 lives both with and without the hoist during 50,000 rescue missions.
Schmidt pointed out during the May 15 ceremony how fortuitous it was that around the same time the barge crashed the nearby Sikorsky factory in Bridgeport was actually testing out the helicopter used in the rescue.
“Was a coincidence that the Sikorsky Bridgeport helicopter factory was and still is just 3 miles from Penfield Reef? Yes, it was,” Schmidt said.
“But was it a coincidence that Igor Sikorsky, our company founder, was working with the U.S. Coast Guard to develop that winch and harness system for helicopter rescues? Not in the slightest. At the time of that northeasterly gale that caused a barge to run aground at Penfield Reef, a Sikorsky R-5A helicopter was undergoing a flight test with that experimental rescue hoist at our factory.”
And to close the loop on Igor Sikorsky’s involvement in the rescue, Igor’s nephew was the one at the controls of the R-5A Sikorsky helicopter in the form of Jimmy Viner.
Nick Viner, Jimmy Viner’s son, shared his thoughts about the plaque commemoration and his father’s involvement in the historic event.
“The idea that a vertical flying machine could lift vertically straight into the air, hover with precision and save someone wasn’t yet proven,” Nick Viner said. “And then, someone had to go first. My father, Jimmy Viner, was part of that ‘first’ on November 29, 1945. He stepped into uncertainty with skill, with focus, and with a quiet kind of bravery that doesn’t announce itself.”
From that point forward, all Sikorsky helicopter models have been designed to have a rescue hoist. Every year thousands of people are rescued from powerful helicopters with large cabins and reliable winch systems. Case in point this year, if you watched the (recent) Artemis (spaceship) recovery those were Seahawk helicopters who hoisted those astronauts from the ocean to bring them to the ship. Those were designed at our factories here at Sikorsky Aircraft.
Angelo Collins, executive director of the Vertical Flight Society, reiterated the importance of the actions taken by the Sikorsky rescue team during that fateful day.
“Penfield Reef was one of the first domestic instances where we proved without a doubt that helicopters are cemented in serving the public good and saving lives,” Collins said. “Igor Sikorsky (founder of Sikorsky Aircraft) was not just an individual who created such an exceptional (machine) such as a helicopter.
“He was a man of faith. He was an orthodox Christian like me. He just wanted to help people. He saw the potential of having an aircraft to save lives, to do some exceptional things.”
