East coast SAR provision was a result of the Cold War requirement to cover the North Sea
That may be the case and it could be argued that those flights I listed before were a touch of overkill. However, what they did provide was back-up for each other to provide full and continuous SAR coverage for an infamous sea that has seen countless people rescued from its unforgiving waters over the years.
What happens when Humberside go u/s in the new plan? Let's look at a couple of standard North Sea jobs - assume 15 minutes to be scrambled and get airborne on top of what's calculated below and also assume 140 kts airspeed and still wind.
Fishing boat taking on water at Dogger Bank N55 00 00 E003 00 00
Humberside would take 1 hour 5 mins to get there. But they're u/s, so who else have we got?
Lydd - 1 hour 49, Prestwick 1 hour 52, Inverness 2 hours - assuming they can fly in a straight line. Those are not great response times.
How about
Man Overboard from a Rig Support Vessel? N57 00 00 E001 30 00 - same conditions as before.
Humberside would take 1 hour 19 to get there, but they're u/s. That leaves Prestwick 1 hour 36 and Inverness 1 hour 35 - again, if they can get there in a straight line. Before you ask, Boulmer would, at 115kts, be there in 1 hour 12.
Now let's look at the English Channel.
A boat has hit the rocks off Alderney - that's about as far away as I could plot a position before it was in French territory.
Same conditions as above - 140kts, still air.
Lee-on-Solent would be there in 33 minutes, but they're u/s. So who else can help?
St. Athan would take 48 minutes, Newquay 50 minutes and Lydd 1 hour 01. Compare these times to the North Sea times above.
It took me about half an hour to do that maths. How come the DfT haven't figured out that there's a gigantic imbalance in the planned SAR coverage in the UK? They need to do something about it before it's too late. The North Sea does not give second chances.