The crew chief aboard an NYPD chopper that rescued two West Point cadets from a mountain ledge described for the first time yesterday the potential catastrophe he faced while painstakingly maneuvering the rope.

“My concern was injuring the [NYPD] paramedic [Christopher Condon, who was being lowered] by smashing him on the side of the rock — or possibly when I attempted to put him on the ledge, I could’ve swept the two cadets off,” said Detective Fernando Almeida.

Almeida, Condon and the other crewmembers, Steven Browning, Michael Sileo and William Stevens, were honored yesterday by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

“I had them dangling 90 feet below the aircraft with the winds the way they were [and] the helicopter was being rocked up and down and sideways, and I had the ledge, which was the size of [a] desk,” Almeida said.

The astonishing rescue mission took only 27 minutes, said pilot Browning.

But it was hell on the crew’s nerves the entire time.

“The turbulence was unbelievable . . . crashing down on a helicopter like a giant wave,” said Kelly, referring to the 50-mph winds whipping Storm King Mountain by the time the NYPD chopper reached the cadets there at around 2:10 a.m. Sunday.

(Source: NY Post)