Back in the winter of 1962-3, which older readers might recall was pretty severe, my abiding memory of the local Westward TV news was of the SAR Whirlwinds spending a lot of time helping to deliver fodder to livestock on the moors.
If this snow stays around much longer, and with most of the SH force out in the Afghan theatre, will one of these mercenary SAR contractors be carrying out a similar task?
And when the thaw and floods start, will they be capable of another Boscastle-type rescue? 3 minutes after a 10ft wall of water devastated the town, RCC Kinloss was alerted; 19 min later RN and RAF helicopters were scrambled. About an hour later, Kinloss were advised to put all available helicopters on standby and 2 further helicopters were then scrambled.
Eventually 7 helicopters airlifted 100 people to safety during this major incident - on a British summer day.
I might be a simple old Hector, but I simply cannot see that type or level of rapid response being provided by a lowest-bidder contractor unless that contractor's crews are all ex-military and thoroughly experienced on the aircraft type. You cannot just go out and buy it....
