Hi, most of what you heard is urban legend. No one has died on the mud flats in over 15 years. Not many people even get stuck, but the potential is definitely there. As a firefighter who has worked the mudflats for years, most of the calls we get are for someone "out on the mud flats" who we approach and help walk off, all the while telling them that it can be dangerous.

No one that I have ever heard of has had their legs ripped off by helicopter. The last person to die out there got stuck at low tide and rescuers were unable to get her out in time before cold water rose above her head. They gave her an air bottle to breath from but she got hypothermic, weak, and drowned. They removed her body at the next low tide.

We now use a water-injection system which liquifies the mud and silt even more around a trapped person's legs, then we pull them onto a wooden board we lay nearby. Since we have used this method we have 100% success rate. The old air-injection system did not work very well.

Don't get me wrong, the mud flats can be very dangerous, but the stories of people dying every year and getting legs ripped off by helicopter are the stuff of myth - hopefully it will stay that way.

Hope this info helps.