Ancient Aircraft
The ancient ac slant is a trifle misleading. The S61s that have been used on civilian SAR contracts for many years are also old. The news reports imply that the RAF SAR Force is failing due to poor serviceability. This may be true but are we comparing their stats to those achieved by their civilian counterparts. How many days do the contractors have ac off state? If their like for like serviceability is higher than the RAF or RN then the argument based on the age of the ac alone falls down.
Does anyone know the stats for the civilian contractors?