Torque - you'll rot in hell for that one
but I agree entirely. What will happen to the CHC bids now they have been sold?
SARowl do you mean 6 people including the 4-man aircraft crew or 6 people plus the 4 - man crew? If it is the former then you must be magicians keeping 2 aircraft 100% serviceable and flying loads of training and jobs with just 2 engineers - either that or some corners are being cut somewhere.
HAL - the simple answer is a PFI to provide the existing SAR service providers with new aircraft and then we just crack on using existing basing and crewing. Have a 139 and a S92 at each flight so you can use whichever aircraft you feel is suitable for the SARop (just like in Hong Kong) and have all the crews dual qualified.