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Broome, Western Australia, SAR EC225

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Broome, Western Australia, SAR EC225

Old 22nd Mar 2015, 20:39
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Broome, Western Australia, SAR EC225

A little (lot?!!) of media hype, but great to see such capability up in the north west.

The most sophisticated search and rescue helicopter in Australia has been unveiled in one of the most remote corners of the country.

The $38 million aircraft is based in Broome, and is on-call 24/7 to deal with emergencies linked to the offshore oil and gas industry.

Captain Mike Peas said the helicopter, known as ' Rescue 625', is an impressive piece of machinery.

"It's a spectacular machine, with great technology in it, and it's certainly the first of its kind in Australia," he said.

"There's only a handful of these aircraft in the world so it's considered exceptional."

What makes the aircraft special is a set of technologies allowing it to travel further offshore, with more reliable equipment, to perform rescues at sea during pitch-black night-time conditions.

Captain Peas said the auto-hover function was able to make the helicopter go onto a sort of 'auto-pilot' mode, flying in a set formation, low to the water, while a person was winched to safety.

"If there's an evacuation, a lost boat, an aircraft that goes down, we don't even have to see where we're going," he said.

"We can get down to that position very quickly, very safely, and maintain a hover, so that the team can use the other gear that's in the aircraft to do what needs to be done, and get people to safety."

Combined with a powerful infra-red system, in-built camera and a rare double-winch set-up, it is an aircraft capable of scouring the seas day or night, should something go wrong on an offshore rig.

The Broome-based unit is made up of a rotating crew of five that pride themselves on quick response times.

The paramedics and pilots live in quarters located at the airport, adjacent to the tarmac, allowing them to respond to emergencies within minutes - 15 minutes during the day, and within 30 minutes at night.

Supporting a new industry

The 'Rescue 625' helicopter was commissioned by Shell to support its move into the Browse Basin.

Within the next few years, the company will station the world's first floating LNG facility about 200 kilometres off the Kimberley coast, as part of its Prelude project.

The search and rescue unit will be on hand to monitor transfers of staff offshore, and respond to any emergencies aboard the enormous 6,000,000 tonne vessel.

While CHC Helicopter is contracted to operate Rescue 625 and its crew for Shell, it will not be for the company's exclusive use.

For a fee, other oil and gas companies can call on the aircraft to assist, and that has already happened twice.

More importantly for the Kimberley region, the companies have also agreed to have the chopper on call for civilian emergencies.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has already called on the search and rescue team to help with three incidents involving missing fishermen.

All were recovered safely.

CHC base manager Shane Cyr said they were expecting that to happen more often.

"The Safety Authority now knows there's extra capabilities in the region so I think we'll get more calls from them," he said.

"But also the fact that as the number of people offshore increases, the more likelihood that this coverage is required.

"It's exciting times. We train a lot, we're ready to go, and we're very keen that if the call is made, and someone needs to be rescued, we can do it in a safe and very efficient manner."

I suspect that a few here would have noticed that there are more than "a handful of these aircraft in the world", and also a few that recall doing auto hover some 45+ years ago, day, night and all weather
John Eacott is offline  
Old 22nd Mar 2015, 21:32
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You're right John. Lloyds provided a similarly equipped S76 for the RAAF many years ago. No doubt less range but all the gizmos, glass panel, full FMS, NVG & 300 ft winch.
Of course it's great to have a modern helicopter in that part of the country with full PR!
Nigel Osborn is offline  
Old 23rd Mar 2015, 00:17
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A 6,000,000 tonne vessel? Seems like someone got carried away with pressing zeros on the keyboard. Try 600,000 tonnes.
Still, at that, I guess the Prelude FLNG platform will be an easier landing target than a regular fixed rig - although I've yet to see what the allowable movement of the FLNG platform is.

That's some serious dollars right there in that chopper and crew setup - but at least it's good to see Shell paying attention to the likely possibility of a disaster in the oil industry.
It's also good to see they are happy to become involved in civilian emergencies and SAR.
The crew probably appreciate the "real-life" training of finding fishermen who have usually done something silly - and no doubt they appreciate the break from the boredom of sitting around waiting for that major call that energises them.

Prelude FLNG - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 23rd Mar 2015, 10:39
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Someone has been running a heap of quiet sausage sizzles to get that big mother up and running!
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Old 23rd Mar 2015, 11:42
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This CHC AWSAR aircraft and cost is shared with Inpex which also has its own contracted Bristow day only SAR and 24 hour Medical Evacuation EC225 based in Truscott and a dedicated Mediically equipped Jet based in Darwin.

There is more SAR and Medical cover in the Browse Basin area than in most places in Australia. The rest of the oil industry will need to play catch up.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 10:16
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i see care flight have bought themselves a piaggio jet as well, don't know when or where it arrives though.
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