Originally Posted by
jimf671
Is it important that the word FIRE doesn't exist? Surely not every situation is detailed in the contract. There's a lot we don't know here, which will be covered in the inquiry. Assuming the ARCC were not contacted, who in the fire service would not make that call? No ladders/lifts high enough, no way of retrieving casualties from the top floors, surely it is an option that should be considered in the future, if it wasn't this time?
I understand it would possibly have been an impossible mission with recirculating air, bad references and no viable winching location, not to mention the debris, ash and smoke. Even without differential gps height hold(ridiculous in 2017) a dual hoist, flir, night sun sky shout 4 crew coastguard s92 MIGHT have been able to do enough to help one life and surely that is enough to allow them to exercise their own skill and judgment in future cases such as this? To leave them in their beds doesn't seem fair to them or the casualties. More than likely no additional rescues could have been made but without being called the crews were denied the opportunity. I wonder what beaurocratic mechanism denied them the opportunity?
Self deploying is a nonsense and whether on fire or not the last thing cities need are old/young and bold pilots 'having a go'. But that is not what we are talking about with a well equipped multi crewed helicopter with many years combined relevant experience onboard.