Llamaman - Comp A jobs were classed as SAROPs if a SAR cab was used as they take precedence over almost everything. I picked up a chap from Heathrow at 6am one sunny morning in a Sea King to take him to Bristol where his father was VSI - in less than 15 hours he had gone from being on patrol in Helmand to being at his father's bedside.
I'm playing devil's advocate Crab. There are ways and means of utilising SAR helicopters for non-SAR tasking and categorising compassionate tasks as SAROPS is one way the military does it. Bristow have obviously found their own way of working the system. Once the ARCC is embedded within the Coastguard NMOC they will essentially be self-policing in terms of tasking and will lose the element of neutrality that Kinloss currently strives for. It's the way ahead apparently.