Chief pilot defends civilian search and rescue service

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/30/pilot-defends-civilian-search-rescue-service-bristow

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A civilian helicopter search and rescue service going live this week will be just as good as the UK’s renowned military version, its chief pilot insists.

From Wednesday, private company Bristow will carry out search and rescue (SAR) operations in the north-east of England and northern Scotland, and over the next two years the RAF and Royal Navy service will be phased out completely across the UK.

Related: British search and rescue services to be run by US company

Concerns have been raised by MPs and members of the search and rescue community that a commercial service will not have the same ethos as the military, which has done the job for more than 50 years. There is also sadness in many coastal communities that the famous Sea King helicopters will be retired.

But Capt Liz Forsyth, chief pilot at the civilian service based in Humberside, said the helicopters replacing the Sea Kings were better and there would be no difference in the skill and attitude of crews.

“We’re all set, we’re into our final preparations. The crews are ready, we’re excited about going on shift again,” she said.

Forsyth, herself a former military SAR commander, said: “In terms of doing the job, there is no difference. We have the same response times – airborne within 15 minutes during the day and 45 minutes overnight. We have the same crew composition: two pilots, a winch operator and a winchman who is also a paramedic. We get tasked just as I did in the air force. There’s a job here, someone’s drowning, can you go? We launch and do the job in the same way.”

Forsyth denied commercial pressures could have an impact. “We will fly for the coastguard, a government agency. There’s no commercial pressure put on me or my aircrew in any way shape or form.”

Many pilots and crew are former armed services personnel. Six of the nine pilots who will be based at Humberside are ex-military, as are nine of the 10 rear crew. “It’s a bit like a reunion here of military crews I’ve flown with in the past,” said Forsyth.

The helicopters that will be used at Humberside are S-92s, powerful machines with a radius of 250 nautical miles.

“I love our aircraft. I could rave about it all day,” said Forsyth. She said they were faster, more flexible – and less leaky – than the ageing Sea Kings but were of similar size.

Forsyth admitted she felt sad that this week’s launch signalled the beginning of the end for military SAR and the Sea Kings. “It’s the end of an era, but I wouldn’t want to go back.”

The Humberside crews have trained with around 600 mountain rescue team members and between 10 and 15 RNLI lifeboats over the last three months. There have been issues to iron out. For instance, the downdraft from the S-92 is more powerful than the Sea Kings, which means rescuers on the ground have to be much more careful and wear goggles and ear protectors.

Mike Margeson, vice chairman of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, who has trained with the Humberside crews, said some volunteer rescuers still had “gripes and worries” but he was optimistic that the service would work well and was impressed by the crews and helicopters.

“There’s worry about change, about the commercial nature of the contract and what the delivery will be like. Will the delivery be as extensive as it’s always been with the military?” he said.

Inevitably, there have been hitches. The Inverness base, which also goes live this week, was due to be equipped with a slightly smaller AW189 helicopter, but it is still going through “an operational evaluation”.

Instead, the larger S-92s will be used for now. Bristow said its bid for the UK SAR contract included a contingency plan in case the AW189 was delayed.

Bristow was planning to open a base at Manston airport in Kent in July to replace the RAF SAR operation at Wattisham in Suffolk. But Manston has just been sold off and Bristow said it was “exploring alternative locations for its SAR operation in the SE region”. Eventually, Bristow will operate from 10 bases around the UK.

But concerns persist. Angus Robertson, the MP for Moray in northern Scotland, expressed worry that the “tried and tested” military service was being lost.

At the opposite end of the UK, the MP for West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Andrew George, also said he was worried the “public service ethos” was being lost.