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Old 15th Mar 2008, 20:42
  #177 (permalink)  
sonas
 
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is this harmony

FROM HEBRIDESNEWS


Coastguard helicopter did not undertake rescue mission 14/3/08

The new Stornoway coastguard helicopter could not undertake a rescue mission on Wednesday because new fuel tanks have yet to be fitted.

Instead, a RAF Sea King crew from Lossiemouth flew the return emergency flight some 200 miles west off the Western Isles to airlift a seriously ill Russian fisherman to hospital in Stornoway.


Although the new Sikorsky S92 coastguard helicopter - based at Stornoway - was closer it does not have such a long range as the former Bristows aircraft used for coastguard operations.


Previous assurances that extra fuel tanks would be fitted into the new aircraft to allow it to fly on such a mission have not been enacted into reality. The fuel tanks are lying empty at the operator's base in Stornoway awaiting a decision whetever to install them or not.

On Wednesday night, the sick man suffering with chest pains was winched off the factory trawler Semyon Lapshenkov.

The MCA said the RAF Sea King was alerted to the mission as it had a longer range.

Last edited by sonas; 15th Mar 2008 at 20:44. Reason: Where the story came from
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