Spanish - manpower first, no they are not jumping ship yet - a couple have gone to other SAR contracts but the main issue has been moving the Sea King OCU which put rearcrew training on hold for several months. The rest of the RAF is working hard on dets and ops and they are holding back many volunteers for SAR who can't be spared from their current posts. Some senior RAF ranks recently decided that to spread the pain, we should reduce to 4 crews per flight because they don't understand how our shift system works and we are now struggling to meet all our tasks with the resources available. Add in a ridiculous new plan for FI manning and you have a recipe for low morale and further PVRs (premature voluntary retirement) - all because some bean-counters won't man us properly to do the task required.
As for the 139 - it has a small cabin (as has the Griffin/412) and is an awful place to work as a winchman/winchop - there are lots of documented cases of bad backs and knees already from the rearcrew in the RAF (Griffin/412)and I would not be surprised if the same thing is happening in the 139 fleet. It's other shortcomings have been due to the contractor - there is still no over-water night winching capability on the aircraft which covers 90% of the English Channel!!!!! a year on from its introduction to service.
MIRG is an issue but many Fire Brigades aren't aware that the 139 can't do the job.