A.A
I was actually on the ground in those floods.Not in the rescue services but cut off from rising water and my family for a short time. Was I at risk? No. Did I do anything stupid to try to get home? No. Did I see lots of others do really stupid things? Yes! None of them however were flyign helicopters! The most stupid had 4x4's!
I watched one rescue at Worcester docks - Diglis. Dont know who did it [apart from it was yellow and made me miss my old job!]. But what I witnessed was a complete spectrum of professional rescue personnel responding to a major incident [police,fire,RAF and SARA [local search team [all volunteers]] - not a
PR event that they could ride the back of!
Does your opinion extend to fire crews who enter swollen rivers? To fire and police crews who take to boats to 'patrol' to check no one requires help. Or to these volunteers who put themeselves in harms way for the good of others?
Taking your risk assessment methodology to this degree would preclude any of them from this activity. Remember though, it was some of these patrols who spotted people cut off in poor situations [and therefore glad for the help] who if left would be in dire situations [and would then neatly fit into when people can be rescued from your risk matrix] assuming you could get to them in time before they were swept away. The fact there were so few lives lost that day is a testement to the rescue services. Who said prevention is better than the cure.
I think you wanted to be a bit provocative at Crabb. Fine. But try to be provocative in a manner that can be defended. I doubt you have ever seriously done SAR. If you have, then its in a country with 8/8ths blue every day. If you had done it in a poor weather country then you would know the thing a SAR crew does best is continually update the weather so they can make the decisions about continuing, landing or turning back. At no stage do they have a tick box with
PR event magnitude!
Sadly, I suspect you wil respond again! Take your own advice, risk assess and dont dig any deeper.