In these times of outsourcing everything, it sometimes comes back to bite you. Related to this crash is the incompetence of some gouvernment agencies to get things right. Not only because they are incompetent but because the law demands of them to make the cheapest buy, unless you can motivate really REALLY well why you should not.
Räddningshelikoptern nådde inte fram ? fiasko vid haverilarm - Uppdrag Granskning | SVT.se
Swedish Sjöfartsverket (agency for marine activities, especially in the Baltic Sea) bought a brand new all-fancy awesome bling helicopter from Augusta Westland (AW139) that was supposed to do awe-inspiring awesome things. Well, it didn't happen that way.
The night this crash happened, this fancy piece of kit couldn't take off until 1:20 after being called for. Then the fuel froze after refuelling. Then the crew refused to take off.
Head of Sjöfartsverket blames this on many things. Like, "this was not our task" or "you can't expect us to ferry people with our new awesome toy". The most interesting thing was "well, this is a difficult terrain so we have to prepare accordingly". I can get that. But, why didn't you prepare already?
This is the reason the SVT (Swedish national television) helicopter was the first on the crash site. This is also the reason the Norwegian F16 was tasked to find the wreckage.
Helicopters that actually got to the place when needed were Norwegian and Swedish ambulance helicopters. It seems health care personnel is more prepared than personnel whose actual task it is to actually get involved in events like this.
When Sweden bought these helicopters for an insane amount of money (some three years ago), it was just because they motivated it REALLY well by saying that they were excellently built for arctic environments and would be super prepared for anything the northern Swedish winter ever could throw at them.
Oh well. Seems like TV crews are better equipped, maybe Sjöfartsverket should talk to SVT about helicopter buys in the future?