Royal Navy Rescue
 

Not quite sure why they'd be sailing around in a hurricane, but there we go.

Dramatic rescue from capsized ship during Hurricane Maria | Daily Mail Online

Noticeably, when the camera panned out, the ship was resting 50yds offshore in shallow surf.
Bit of a publicity stunt if you ask me.
The locals accidentally pressed the 999 icon on their phones rather than the UBER one !!!
Atleast it's dinner conversation for the battle hardened crew to talk over.

Read the article !

No publicity stunt I believe.

"It later emerged that the British man, who has not been named, had been unable to escape the shipwreck and died before emergency crews were able to stage the rescue, which was captured on camera on Thursday by Petty Officer 2nd Class Ashley Johnson.

The family, on board a 146ft former oceanographic research vessel called the Ferrel, had spent a terrifying 24 hours with the engine disabled and sent out an SOS call at 11.30am on Wednesday."

BZ Ma'am for a good rescue.

Rugmuncher - joke re the PR stunt.

BZ for good rescue???
The upturned vessel was rock steady. Max wind speed was 30kts as seen in the video. Sea state in those shallows was about 4. Text book pick up.
BZ for what?

Agree with TC, looks like a relatively easy training serial, however, as we appear to be considering awarding medals to people in airconditioned offices dropping bombs from drones thosands of miles away, perhaps a BZ for actually being there is not out of place:D

I'm sure someone in the RN will write them up for a medal.

Not sure why they bothered winching - much safer for all involved to land on next to them.

Cue some outcry about how SAR is RN secondary role etc etc etc

How the family was arrived on on the " top " of a big capsized boat close to the shore ? Their boat ?

Pavlov got his dogs to drool at the mere sound of a bell. Any mention of RN SAR now produces a similarly excited reaction from Crab. Still smarting from earlier encounters old chap? Still feel you have an axe to grind? Agree with TC about the 'risks' in this rescue though.

Safer to land on the hull of an upturned boat rather than a short winch with oodles of wind? Really crab? Slope/movement/c of g risk?


Was reported that it was their boat, with skipper/dad/husband dead trapped inside sadly.

The only Pavlovian response has been from the dark blue brigade inevitably:E

Lofty, you don't have to put the full weight of the aircraft on the hull - don't the RN practice light wheel contact hover/landing?

From my experiences with non-mainstream RN SAR, winching is the more risky of the two options.

Ding! Ding! Fetch the mop Mrs Crab! One comment, possibly from 'dark blue', but constructive and the other highlighting your little obsession. Not quite the response you were hoping for with the deliberately goading 'medals' remark was it?

It wasn't a particularly risky rescue, I agree, but no doubt you would have handled it much more skilfully. There's really no need to argue the toss every time!

Perhaps you haven't noticed but RN SAR doesn't exist any more:E

What happened here then? An RN cab searched for and rescued some people off a boat?
As long as the RN has helo's and a winch - it's SAR.. A secondary role it always was and always will be. It's always been run of the mill - nothing more and nothing less.

Only the RAF can make a mountain out of a mole hill. Squadrons, hundreds of people, dozens of senior officers and dedicated primary tasking. I never could work out how you slipped it past the accountants for so long!!

That rather denies the many valiant efforts of 771 and Gannet - I'm pretty sure they recognised the difference between SAR being a primary role and secondary one.

Crab

Woof! Woof! Just drop that bone, there's a good boy! Mop again Mrs Crab!

I think TC is referring to when the RN is at sea. None of us would deny the outstanding work done by 771, 772, 819/719 and station flights around the country until the 'peace dividend' wiped them all out. SAR was, of course, their primary role but you couldn't say that RN helos at sea have a primary SAR role apart from the ships' flights in the old fixed wing carriers. That's why RN helos are equipped with sonobuoys, torpedoes, missiles, depth charges etc.

Funny then that Bristow appear to have dedicated aircraft and crews for SAR rather than just using guys and girls from the offshore roster :suspect:

oh, they managed to kill a few survivors over the years without any of that stuff FD2!

coat,hat

One only has to read a few DASORs to see how effective secondary role SAR is in the RN:ok:

I set Crab's posts - along with those of Anfi and Krystal n Chips - to 'Ignore' not long after signing up here. However as my long time mate FD2 had posted I 'un-ignored' Crab today. Wish I hadn't bothered - same old puerile anti-RN stuff. Back to 'Ignore' with you, Crab old boy. Don't bother replying - won't see it.

Albert

Your post is rather nasty and puerile. Perhaps you can supply some instances of the RN 'killing survivors', for our enlightenment?

I was pointing out that the helicopters are equipped with that sort of weaponry to fulfil their various roles at sea, for which the crews are adequately trained. Some of the helicopters are rather simple machines like those the RAF fly (apart from the late Sea King) because they are designed to carry troops from A to B and back but may have a big noisy gun mounted in the cabin door. The Chinook is very complicated as a machine but still fulfils that role.

If someone is in distress at sea then there is a legal obligation to go and help but those crews are not specifically trained in SAR techniques, which Crab and perhaps you are? There is not really a role for them to do that, it's just what they'll do if they are able to help. Of course there will be accidents from time to time but flying's never an entirely safe endeavour, no matter how many rules, regs and SOPs over-keen people can come up with, is it?


Crab

Get a life! You're like a dog, just waiting for that bell. Was your mother abandoned by a horrid, hairy matelot when you were a kid?

I dare say that if a frontline RAF crew (not a SAR crew of course, back in the day) was picked at random to go and do a complicated and difficult SAR task there might also be the occasional problem. Ah, but come to think of it they could no doubt refuse the task, couldn't they? Rules and regulations eh? At sea there is no one else who might be able to do it - it's all down to you personally. In the past some accidents have happened because it was and is very difficult to refuse your captain at sea, even when conditions were/are below minimums and some people have been over-eager and exceeded their capabilities but it's mainly because when people are dying in front of you it's difficult to do nothing, isn't it? My conscience wouldn't allow it.

Instead of continuing the childish inter-service sniping, you might acknowledge that there are many people alive today (with grateful families) who have been plucked off sinking ships, oil rigs etc all around the World by Royal Navy crews (e.g. Steel Vendor), just as there are many likewise who were rescued by the Royal Air Force (e.g. Finneagle) around our coasts. Some good friends of mine were in the RAF and we used to enjoy the odd bit of inter-service banter but yours has just become boring and tedious and your 'arguments' evasive and circuitous. Having the last word isn't always so clever, even if you think that defending 'your' service is the right thing to do, come hell or high water.

Out.

Yes I can supply several but your puerile response is both tedious and typical RN. Fastnet 79, when the RAF RCC's were told "keep out, this is a navy show' is one that sticks in my mind when we saw on TV pleas from Cdr Air Culdrose for ANY helo crews to report for duty, then watched while single strops were dangled over survivors who couldn't reach them whilst being filmed by a second navy cab with a camera crew? I had three professional (RAF) Wessex crews under my command which were refused permission, by the RN, to 'join their show'. Subsequently, after the medals and granite plaque at Sea Hawk, RN SAR assets were placed under RAF Opcon for future. Then of course there was Lyme Bay and single strop lifts, and Cecil Japan when a survivor was dropped. Be careful what you ask for FD2.

FD2 - in the adult world, it is acceptable and often desirable to engage in discourse, whether it be banter or disagreement, without resorting to name-calling and personal insults - you and many other stern RN-defenders just don't seem to be able to get that, you throw your teddies out of the cot and hurl abuse at the first sign of criticism.

My point about SAR is, and has always been, that if you don't train for it, you are very likely to be more of a hazard trying to rescue someone. If you don't train for it, the 'red mist' descends and you are more likely to take unreasonable risks.

This is the very reason we taught our SAR crews to be able to say NO - it didn't happen very often but when it did, that decision was respected.

Counterpoint that with your argument that the Captain of the ship can make the helicopter crew launch in ridiculous conditions - the captain of the aircraft has an enormous duty of care to his own crew which outweighs the SOLAS pressure.

I got flamed previously on a SAR thread for mentioning the loss of a Lynx in the Channel which was launched in fog for a MoB - but that is exactly the situation that should be avoided by good aircraft captaincy as a result of training. No-one who has searched over the water in poor visibility, for a single person without safety equipment, would think it was a good idea but they went and very sadly didn't come back. You, presumably, would defend this action to the hilt rather than acknowledging the folly and waste of life.

OK, I'm sorry....didn't expect such a massive tail hook moment there:ooh:
Just having a little nudge at my old friend Crab, who I worked with for several years - and I have to say he is a consumate professional with exceptional credentials.

The only problem is that he went and runied all that pent up talent by becoming......yes you've guessed it ...a fricking CRAB FFS.

Never mind, can't all be versatile and flexible masters of ones' trade, can one :uhoh:

Can we swiftly move on and stay calm:}

Al-bert

Did you ever investigate why the RN refused your offer? I'm quite sure mud can be slung in both directions and perhaps you ought to read my post more thoroughly before issuing silly 'warnings'. You seem to be very bitter about it even now. People sometimes get things wrong and perfect hindsight is always a marvellous thing. I am in thrall to the RAF's less puerile and/or tedious approach to inter-service rivalry.

Crab

I think it is admirable that you stick to your guns, even if I can't agree with you, but if you re-read my post you will see that I said 'hard to resist' not impossible and that I hope things are different now. Would you have had the station commander literally (in its proper sense) breathing down your neck when you made the (occasional) decision not to fly? Not so easy when you are very junior and in command of your first ship's flight.

No doubt, as TC has said, you are a consummate professional, but even perfect pilots can be wrong at times.

And this really is 'out'.

No, remember that we had a crew of 4 and any decision not to go would have, generally, to be agreed by all. Additionally, any decision would have to be justified to the ARCCK.

Even in the situation of a first-tour Op Captain, it would be unusual, but not impossible, to have all 4 members with the same low level of experience.

It still all comes down to training and I have met some excellent RN Lynx crews in the Falklands who knew when to say no to the Senior Officers bright ideas club so things probably are even better now.

I am far from perfect and quite capable of being wrong but in this case I don't believe I am.

FD2I'm sure that SRCC (Mountwise as was) did investigate, as it was they who 'offered our services' and relayed the Naval response that it was 'their show' - the Fastnet that is.

BTW, we were only one unit, C Flt 22 Sqn RAF Valley, which could have responded. B Flt 202 at Brawdy and the newly formed SKTU, actually at Culdrose, with brand new Sea King HAR 3 and a fully operational crew, were also turned down by the glory hunters.
As a yachtsman and a professional SAR pilot I was/am appalled at the RN's amateur approach to SAR back then - damned right I'm bitter. The RN seemed to wallow in inter-service rivalry and I assume that the reason they came under RAF RCC opcon subsequent to the Fastnet was due to lessons learned.

Al-bert

I think that the 'glory hunters' jibe was a rather unworthy and cheap shot but I hope you feel better for having got it off your chest - 38 years is a long time to feel so bitter. To think that all this anger was stirred up by a snarky remark about medals for a straightforward winching job!

Is it all finished? I just bought another bucket of popcorn.