RN Rescue Attempt

[opso]

Impressive amount of Friday Afternoon RAF effort going in to the 'RN Rescue attempt' on the telly at the moment. Hear that a Merlin and a herc were involved today to feed the C17. Didn't see anyone from the RN, although I'm led to believe that there is one Cdr on the C17! Anyone else involved? The C17 was shown leaving live on sky news, although the reporters reckon that it will take 20 hours to get to Russia (seems a bit long to me). Fingers crossed that it all works.

[StopStart]

20 hours seems fairly good going seeing as it is the other end of Russia... Should've sent a Herc - we could've cracked in just under 20 days...with a following wind :{

Fingers crossed indeed tho

[opso]

It's just that 20 hours is a long flight without refuelling.

[The Rocket]

Opso,

20 hours is a long flight WITH refuelling!! :p

[SASless]

20 hours to a crew of seven trapped under the water might be a lifetime!

Prayers for their safe rescue!:(

[The Rocket]

Yes, you're quite right SASless

God bless all aboard, and let us all pray for a happy ending

[foldingwings]

Using Google Earth (pretty rough) from Prestwick to Kamchatka is about 4000 nm great circle or abt 10 hrs as described on the BBC last night. The C-17 has already landed in Russia.

The other 10 hours are taken up by road/sea journeys to get to the location off the Kamchatkan Pensinsula.

Good luck and God Speed to all involved.

[Mad_Mark]

The 20 hours quoted was to fly to Kamchatka, transport 60 miles by road, sail to scene of search and be ready to start ops. Pretty good going in my book :ok:

MadMark!!! :mad:

[opso]

OK, they didn't make that very clear on the news last night - just said, as the C17 took off, that it would take 20 hours to get there. I agree that 20 hours to be at the rescue site is pretty damn good - especially when you consider that they will be sailing for 3-4 hours. Also impressive to see that despite how tightly stretched the RAF is, we managed to throw things together in very quick order and be first foreign nation on scene despite the distances involved. Shows we can do it when things count. Well done everyone involved.

Fingers still crossed.

[Jordan D]

Best of luck to all involved in the request attempt ... praying that the 7 sailors on the seabed make it out safe and sound.

Jordan

[circle kay]

I believe that as well as the C130 and the Merlin, a Nimrod was diverted from a training flight to ferry specialists to meet the C17 at Pwestwick.

[Gainesy]

Sub safe, excellent news, well done RN DSRV team (cut it free), 99Sqn and others! All seven crew walked off it.:ok:

[MaroonMan4]

Guys/Girls,

I really dont care which Service did it, but again all the PEOPLE involved pullled out the stops to get a very high profile job done in a professional manner.

Well Done (or is it termed a 'BZ' if the Fishy types are involved!).

But as an aside do you think that the British public fully appreciate how flexible and multi-task the UK military is? When the whingeing on budgets and Defence costs start will those with the treasury pen consider/remember activities like this?



:ok:

[egbt]

BBC report

Video (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4128614.stm#)

Mentions submersible entangled in net and “Underwater Antenna”

[circle kay]

Well done to all involved. With all the change, constant management speak and bad news. We tend to forget that we still do things as well as anyone else in the world. Another job well done by the Royal Navy :ok:

[pr00ne]

MaroonMan4

Not taking ANYTHING away from all involved in this, but MaroonMan4, if you look at the facts of who was actually involved in the actual rescue, you will see that it was carried out by a UK company James Fisher Rumic Ltd with a team of 8 civilian operators. They operate, service and maintain Scorpio 45. Perhaps there is a risk that the “UK public” and more importantly, those with the “Treasury pen” will see this as a ringing endorsement for contractorisation, privatisation and civilianisation?

[ZH875]

Congrats all round for a difficult job well done. Isn't teamwork a fantastic thing.

I hope the submariners get over their ordeal quickly.

ZH

[Onan the Clumsy]

How come they can't build a sub that has a couple of extra sma;; openings, one at the front and one at the back, then if it gets stuck somewhere, they could dock onto those hatches and pump air through the vessel, extending the avilable resue time? Even the Space Station can do that.

[diginagain]

Onan, I think you need to pay more attention to where your right index finger thinks it is!:ok:

[MaroonMan4]

Pr00ne,

Thanks, yep I was taken by the 3 ringer on TV, thinking that it was military team.

Now informed, but still a bloody good job.;)

[Jordan D]

Well done and congrats to all involved - RAF, RN, James Fisher Rumic Ltd and anyone else ....

As they say in the A-Team ... I love it when a plan comes together.

Jordan

[nottaflake]

I didn’t go in the end, but I was close enough to events on Friday and have chatted with people to know much of what happened. Whilst we’re all back-slapping each other, I’d like to put in a particular mention for ASCOT Ops, who have been slated here on pprune plenty of times in the past.

While we were pushing out the stops to find sufficient crew and an ac, ASCOT were greasing the wheels to make things run without a hitch. They put on a C130 to ferry up a crew member (not needed in the end) and paperwork to the C17 loading at Prestwick, they also found an interpreter and put him on a passing heli that they hijacked, along with some ATSY, to meet up with the herc and got up the film crew that took the footage that we’ve seen plenty of over the past 36 hrs. They found us lots of info about where we were going and what we were doing and made some deal with the Americans for us to use their kit at the far end if the Russian airfield couldn’t unload us and got things moving even while permissions were being sought so that there was no delay once the green light was given. They also sorted the dip clears at very short notice and I doubt that was easy! (After all, out FCO wouldn’t jump to the tune of the RN and I doubt Russian bureaucracy is any less thank ours!) Putting all of this together meant things weren’t delayed at all, enabling the British team to be deployed first and save 7 lives.

Now, I’ve never had much to say about ASCOT Ops one way or the other – they’ve just been a bunch of people doing an acceptable, average job in my experience, but Friday proves to me that they can do things very well. It also proves that having Flt Ops there isn’t the disaster some around here would make out. The crew will be back soon and I suspect that they will share many of my thoughts. Congratulations to all involved, from the crew (who had a very long day) to the RN employed rescue team, but from my point of view, particularly for ASCOT Ops who put it together. Job well done.

[opso]

Yeah! Flt Ops rules! Any comment from Rev I Tin?

[Rev I. Tin]

@opso,

You are a tease!! Flt Ops rules what? You're forgetting that I'm not Flt Ops branch. Anyway I wasn't on duty on Friday (which is possibly why it went well!), however I was on over the weekend dealing with the crew out there. Very tired crew, don't mention the accommodation they ended up in.

@notaflake

Thank you for your comments. It's not often we get thanks so your 'well done' is gratefully received. Will pass on to the guys who did the work.

Best news of all is the successful rescue, so well done to the RN.

God Bless,

Rev I. Tin

[fat albert]

It's not often we get thanks

not often you earn it..............

[Rev I. Tin]

Fatty,

John 11:35

Job 38:02

Job 21:05


God Bless.

Rev I. Tin

[steamchicken]

Would it be presumptuous to add - Splice the Main Brace?

[doubledolphins]

Puts a whole new slant on the old adage that the Army and RAF are weapons systems delivered by the Navy. At least the C17 is painted Battle Ship Grey! Just a little after thought, did any one else think the Boat's Skipper had a Soviet Navy badge on his cap?

[adr]

I'll raise a glass tonight in honour of all involved.

Full marks to Adml Fyodorov who reportedly (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=DUWBJCMJC521NQFIQMFCM5OAVCBQYJVC?xml=/news/2005/08/08/wsub08.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/08/ixnewstop.html) said on national TV in Russia, "We bow before the experience brought by the sailor rescuers of Great Britain's Royal Navy," and remarked on the RN team's "good technical equipment" and "highest professionalism".

Pity that the author of this report (http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/87/346/15935_minisub.html) in Правда seemingly can't bring himself to advert to the British participation in the rescue.

adr

[doubledolphins]

Catch up old chap, got well into the Wood's last night! As to the submariners getting over it, wont take long but I supose they will prefer vodka. Now there's a thought. A rum and vodka mix. Might have a bit of fun in the wardroom trying that out tonight. Bottoms up!

[fat albert]

Rev: indeed he did.

However, of the ITOC he did also speak....

1 Timothy 1:7

And I'll get them in now before you do...

Job 16:3

Job 13:5

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen

[Rev I. Tin]

Falbert,

Isiah 60: 8

Ecclesiastes 10:3

Proverbs 12:1

:E

Benedictus Benedicat

Rev I. Tin

[cobaltfrog]

per jesu christo dominum nostrum Amen!!

[fat albert]

Now now Rev....

Proverbs 12:16

Ecclesiastes 7:9

Dominus vobiscum

:)

[Rev I. Tin]

Well this is making a rather slow day a bit more interesting, although we have slightly gone off topic. To take it back to a more nautical theme:

Ezekiel 27: 9

Rev I. Tin

[fat albert]

Quite. In fact, to get almost back on topic:

Jonah 1:17

Jonah 2:10

[egbt]

or perhaps

Ezekiel 27:29 -

"And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;"

or in this case come up with their ship

[opso]

If the religious double-speak has finished... (Never listened at RE, so no idea what the references meant).

It was good to see the C17 crew get equal billing with the navy team at the press conference at Prestwick this morning. And extra coverage with OC 99 on the local news this evening. Lots of positive coverage of the military for a change.

And was it just me or did the Cdr drop a clanger when he said that he'd lied about their chances at the pre-departure press conference?

[Nil nos tremefacit]

Caught the main press conference, but missed the local news.

Sqn Ldr KH was doing a good advertisement for the C-17. Does this mean 99 get No 5 as well as No 6? I suspect not.

When the Lords and masters make their decisions they will still try to minimise defence expenditure despite the evidence staring them in the face.

If you wonder what was available to the boys down route, look at this thread from Jet Blast entitled predatory Russian girls, it's all the same region:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=184331

opso, ask your merry men if anybody partook!
:ok:

[opso]

They're not my guys, but it would be disappointing if they didn't take advantage of the opportunities that travel presents wouldn't it - the sights, sounds and sensations that make memories...;)

[Baskitt Kase]

I see that the RN Cdr (flown by the RAF to watch the civy team do the rescue) got his OBE today for this - shame that KH and others involved seem to have been forgotten. It appears that watching really is better than doing!

[opso]

Lyneham's former Staish also got a CBE (although not for this). Anyone know why? Other than for being Staish during a tragic period...

[KPax]

Perhaps for being an outstanding Station Commander, he may have had the odd fault (who doesn't) but he was very good to work for.

[PompeySailor]

I see that the RN Cdr (flown by the RAF to watch the civy team do the rescue) got his OBE today for this - shame that KH and others involved seem to have been forgotten. It appears that watching really is better than doing!

Trouble is that each Service submits it's own applications for honours and awards through the CoC. It's a long and tortuous route, and many fall by the wayside (including me, for the last 20 years apparently!). It's not so much the fault of the RN guy for getting it, or the fault of his lords and masters for putting him up, but the finger should be pointed at the RAF guy's lords and masters for not pushing him hard enough towards the final table.

Some of the submissions are comical in their ineptness when it comes to putting people forward, and some of the awards are politically-accelerated.