Bad day for UK Military SAR

[Eurochopper]

From the BBC news website, whilst a glider pilot is missing somewhere in the Scottish Highlands:
"A helicopter was scrambled from RAF Boulmer in Northumberland but was diverted to Leuchars after hitting a bird.
A second helicopter is currently grounded at Boulmer due to technical problems.
The RAF's search and rescue helicopter based at Lossiemouth is also grounded after having to make an emergency landing last week."
Fortunately for the poor chap who is missing, there is one remaining asset at Prestwick. I hope it finds him.
Perhaps things will get better once SAR is privatised?

[airborne_artist]

While I'm not doubting the facts, you do have to laugh at an item that contains the line "It was a powerful glider".

[SAR Bloke]

And 'a Tornado from RAF Kinloss'???

What they fail to tell you is that they were minor problems and this morning there were 3 military helicopters and at a least 2 MRTs searching a huge area of the highlands.

Edit: try looking at the video on the BBC website.

[Matthew Parsons]

Perhaps things will get better once SAR is privatised?

Is that because privatized aircraft break less, privatized aircraft are flown while broken, or because privatized technicians are better?

If it's #1 then it might be a training problem (either military doing something to break them or civilians not finding the breaks). If it's #3 the issue is not being military, the issue is the training needs to be fixed.

If it's #2 then perhaps SAR shouldn't be privatized.

There are many good reasons to keep SAR military, many to have SAR privatized. I think it's a good idea to focus on fact rather than create rhetoric.

[SARowl]

The main problem is the age of the aircraft that both the Mil/Civvies use. The Seaking and S61 are both too long in the tooth. It will be interesting to see how reliability improves or degrades with the introduction of the S92/AB139.