rescue question

[STANDTO]

I've just been watching something on telly, where a sea king takes off from Chivenor, refuels in Eire, then goes and rescues a bloke off a ship at the edge of its range, and then comes back and lands at Shannon so he can get the medical help he needs.

Apart from the bonus of a night on the black velvet, why would Irish ASR not undertake this?

yours ignorantly

Standto

[Dual ground]

I was groundcrew on 202 Sqn at Brawdy, in West Wales, between '86 and '90. We would quite regularly send aircraft over there for tasking. The SeaKing had the range that their aircraft didn't. I guess maybe that's still the case.

Had a few nice meals in the Shannon Shamrock hotel, courtesy of the Irish taxpayer....

[Pontius Navigator]

Department of Transport: Search and Rescue

and

http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/8614-0.doc

You will note from the table that the assets available to Ireland include UK assets. You will also see that the Sea King has a significantly greater range and endurance than the IRCG Sikorsky.

[Mad_Mark]

Add to that the fact that the tanker in question in that programme was in the UK SAR region.

MadMark!!!

[STANDTO]

thanks for that. I've learned something there. Was surprised at the range limitations of the Sikorsky

[Tallsar]

Thats about the size of it Standto....the casualty was in the UK's area of responsibility.....Eire was just an essential refuelling stop to get there.

BTW the term ASR (Air Sea Rescue) was last officially used in the 1950s. The capability has been termed Search and Rescue (SAR) for about 50 years now.....but is still often got wrong by the media in their ignorance,

Cheers