Pot,
I will accept anything....let's get the details and see how it all played out. There may very well be these incidents...but at least we should be arguing about reality and not hypo's. The What If game can be played however one wishes and in almost all cases would ignore the reality.
Even in the event you mention....I am sure dispatching mulitiple aircraft was possible....the nice thing about SAR is usually....they only happen in small numbers of incidents at one time thus SAR units can stage to cover "disasters" using more than one aircraft.
Quick Google search found this statement....
According to official records, the Coastguard Sikorsky S61N search-and-rescue helicopter currently based at Lee-on-Solent undertook 188 sorties and rescued 106 people during 1991.
A Jetranger could handle that average sortie retriveal load. Thus it seems the 61 is a bit too much aircraft based on the 1991 numbers....using averages alone which does not tell the whole story.