Privatisation is not some thing I am generally in favour of
and is an area that I would not normally write about but some of the comments
and reporting about the privatisation of the UK’s Search and Rescue helicopters
is so badly informed and sensationalist I felt I would add my two pence.
It is an area I have a little knowledge of, having served in
the Fleet Air Arm and worked in the aviation side of the oil industry for
nearly twenty years. This post also has a relevance to the helicopter service
that use to operate from Penzance.
The main driver for the privatisation of the Search and
Rescue helicopters are the helicopters themselves, since the early 1970’s the helicopter
used for S.A.R work by the military in the UK has been the Sea King, the S61 that
flew to the I.O.S was the civil version, the Sea King was also throughout the 70’s
80’s and 90’s the helicopter used by the military for a large part of its helicopter
flying, but sadly the days of the Sea King are coming to an end, most of the
airframes themselves are nearly 40 years old and any one who owns an old car
knows how much they cost to maintain.
As the Sea King leaves service and is replaced by the Merlin
(that’s the one at the end of Sky Fall) the crews are retrained in flying and
maintaining these new aircraft, but there is no S.A.R variant of this aircraft,
so if the military wished to continue with the SAR role it would be forced to purchase
a helicopter type just for this role, then air and ground crew would have to be
trained to work on this type but military personnel are moved to new postings
every few years, so you would be trapped in a constant training cycle, as both
air and ground crews have to be licensed for each aircraft type they work on.
This is not really a practical solution.
Bristows, who have won the contract to supply S.A.R services
are very experienced in this type of work, between 1971 (even before the S.A.R
came to Culdrose) and 2007 Bristows flew SAR helicopters on contract to H.M
Coastguard in 2007 this contract was awarded to a Canadian company. It will
surprise many that Bristows also trains all military helicopter pilots and SAR
crews. Alan Bristow who founded the company was a Fleet Air Arm pilot himself.
The new service will use Sikorsky S-92 and the
AgustaWestland AW189 helicopter, these are very modern and there capabilities far
exceeds the old Sea Kings, flying further and faster.
I'm very sorry to see the old Sea Kings go, they where a big
part of my working life but cold logic tells me that this is the only practical
way forward.
