Daily Mail in typical form, I see - this was neither a
Search or a
Rescue, it was a
Medevac, most appropriately carried out by Rescue 122 as the safest, best trained and probably most cost effective manner of ensuring a workers' medical condition was treated quickly.
Yes, of course there'll be "first" this & "first" that but, with any luck, the press will get bored eventually, just as they did with Prince Andrew 30+ years ago (when all we heard about was what the "
second-in-line to the throne" was getting up to), and let Flt Lt Wales get on with his job. When William was born, many spliced the mainbrace in celebration of a new heir - many others celebrated that the 2nd-in-line had now become 3rd, so the press could go off & terrorise his brother, sister in law and usurper instead; and let the new 3rd-in-line get on with his job.
In the meanwhile, take the press coverage with a large pinch of salt and live with it as positive advertising for the SAR fleet, RAF and Military in general - as it's nothing new. The average member of the public has no idea of what the different arms of the services are about unless they hear snippets of this sort - and I'd promote that they need all the support the public can provide, since it takes such a large slice of our, ever diminishing, public money!
On a separate note, TCs comment brings back memories of a shared SPLOT who made a double manual, very slow "carrier deck" landing (onto a runway) the culmination of a first Captaincy check ride. All members of the crew had "died", & the now single pilot learnt the real meaning of "one-armed-paper-hangar"!
It might not be practiced in the Sim, or generally with a single pilot, but knowing it wasn't impossible certainly did wonders for a young aviator's confidence in both himself and the venerable Queen of the Skies.
