End of an Eara

[Garysb]

End of an Era
9:00am Jan 1st 2016 saw the military SAR hand over to the UK Coast Guard and the end of the big yellow and red/grey Seakings coming to your rescue

Gary

[mikewmac]

End of an Era
9:00am Jan 1st 2016 saw the military SAR hand over to the UK Coast Guard and the end of the big yellow and red/grey Seakings coming to your rescue

Gary

[Tranquil]

Very Sad! will miss them in the skies!!

Much thanks

Mark

[VulcanDriver]

Suddenly we are doing retro packages! Only joking. Think its a daft decision. Just a thought the RAF / RN rescue squadrons primary purpose was the recovery of downed airmen in times of war. So who will do that now? The civvy role was used for training.

[Garysb]

I'm assuming the Chinook will now take over the CSAR role

Gary

[Firebird]

My guess would be that in wartime the crews would be in the Reserve. At least that was the case when I was in the mob, some BA crew were designated as Civilian Air Reserve and would be used on trooping missions with BA aircraft.

Whether or not that process still exists I do not know.

Of course you would also have the CSAR forces from Lakenheath available as well.

[jimrodger]

I'm assuming the Chinook will now take over the CSAR role

Gary

The RAF has never done CSAR. We've always "employed" the services of our American friends.

Just a thought the RAF / RN rescue squadrons primary purpose was the recovery of downed airmen in times of war.

Primary role was recovery of downed airmen in peacetime - as you said the civvy rescue was used as training events - although ultimately that was the "primary" role.

Jim

[VulcanDriver]

Thanks for correcting the error about aircrew recovery.

[jetmax]

According to Stars and Stripes, the 56 and 57 RQS at Lakenheath are moving to Italy

http://www.stripes.com/news/air-force-s ... y-1.377351

[VulcanDriver]

So it looks like both UK civvy and mil SAR will be run by a private company. Just hope they know how to deal with a downed "hot" aircraft!

[Victory103]

Sad to see this. We had a situation at a previous duty station where we maintained 24hr medevac coverage to both mil and civ. Due to long, back to back deployments, big Army decided to contract out for EMS services. We had a mil vehicle rollover with 4 patients on the ranges, although I was on a training flight with a fully capable med UH-60 and crew, we had to let the paid contract helo take 1 patient at a time.