Mailbird 48 wrote
Then a Nimrod was scrambled in Kinloss to look out for me and finally found me 200 miles north of my calculated course and guided me safely to Shannon.
It was actually three months short of 19 years ago. My log book entry for 12 September 1993 reads - Nimrod MR2 XV 227. Captain, Self. Flight Details, SAR. Shepherd Cessna 340 N9862F to Shannon. 6.15 Night.
Crew 3 CXX Sqn. The BBC made an episode of 999 out of it a couple of months later which is when we met Werner, a rare chance to actually speak with someone we helped to rescue.
Incidentally, I did meet someone else I was involved in rescuing. Round the world solo yachtsman Tony Bullimore. He owes his life in no uncertain terms to the capability to conduct long range airborne search and rescue - there was no alternative in those latitudes of the Southern Ocean.
Can't help wondering how many people might not be so lucky while we haven't got the SAR dimension provided by a LRMPA. Perhaps not a reason in itself to justify regaining the capability, but there are so many others...................