I can not confirm this. the pneumatic cushions are state of the art for lifting. They can handle high weights from a safe distance an are very good to level more or less within mm-steps (at least when some pressure is on them)I'm no expert on latest kit and techniques but I was swapping stories with a firefighter many years ago, and we got onto the subject of air bags and their use. The air bags they used then were primarily used as passive support to stabilise things rather than active lifting in rescue situations.
One of the reasons being the large contact patches of bags made the actual predictability of how exactly they would move a load when inflated so difficult. Not what you want with a load trapping someone's legs.
Have a look at my post #115.
for passive holding you use struts or wood which you bring in after lifting with the bags. To stabilize before, during and after lifting there are different techniques as well.
So you lift with the bag and you hold with the strut (or wood). Of course there are many ways to lift with hydraulic tools as well but from my experience it is a minority.