Just to expand a little on Mr ripley's post #14 WRT the SA SAR mission.
The duty Q crew were 'scrambled' at approx 0700 on 17 Sept 1993 and XV213 got airborne a short time later after the tanks, inc the internal fuselage had been fully topped off. Almost as an afterthought the see off crew were grabbed from the pan to act as observers as the a/c was about to taxi. Observer seats were fitted in the para stations and 1 ASRA kit on board along with the usual Marine Markers and smokes, unfortunately there was no time load any rations. All the crew knew was that a mayday had been rx'd from a Russion cargo ship and that the cargo had shifted in heavy seas. The only location known was a point about 400 miles south of Tristan Da Cuhna, halfway between Capetown and MPA. The transit out was uneventful. No beacons were being rx'd. As the Herc approached the last known position it dropped down to a suitable height to begin a search pattern. Almost immediately after dropping through the clag one of the hastely grabbed, non trained, observers called a sighting and it turned out to be an empty liferaft. But at least the area was right. More wreckage was spotted over the next hour or so and it was found that the height had to be reduced significantly in order to spot anything. After following a fuel slick, bodies began to be spotted sporadically. Eventually a group of survivors was spotted clinging to wreckage. An ASRA drop was carried out but failed to inflate on impact. It was a perfectly positioned drop. Not long after that the crew hit bingo fuel and began the long transit back to MPA. At this point most of the nav kit began to fail and the a/c routed back using the sextant/nav's pencil. MPA was a VERY welcome sight. Let's just say the a/c took off at MOS and landed extremely light. On landing the crew brief the next crew and they flew another sortie, with AAR and rations. They had a longer period on top and dropped Sub Smash kit and possibly another ASRA. The conclusion was that two of the ships crew were picked up by the ship routed to assist but one was lost crossed decking from the raft to the ship. Still one survivor is better than none.
How do I know all this? I was sitting in the center seat all the way there and back on that first sortie. My logbook reads 10:40 day and 4:00 night. I believe it was a record for for a none AAR sortie in a Herc, unless anyone knows better, of course.