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| • Preux et audicieux - Valiant and Brave: Flt Lt
Andy McGreevy, Flt Lt John Singh, Sgt Mark Lean and Flt Sgt
Dave Sheppard one of the five crews at 22 Squadron A Flight.
Ref: AK4331/43/06 |
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| • Guardians of the coast and beyond: Saunton Sands
as seen from the Sea King. Ref: AK4334/43/06 |
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| • Flt Lt Andy McGreevy puts the Sea King
through her paces using a vast suite of avionics. Ref: AK4350/43/06 |
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• Soap and Suds: Approximately 30 ground staff engineers
work in shifts to ensure that each aircraft is serviced, clean
and ready to fly.
Ref: AK4332/43/06 |
Heroes of the air
By Andy Keeble (andrew.keeble@archant.co.uk)
Focus on RAF 22 Squadron A Flight – Chivenor’s Search
and Rescue team
THEY are among the RAF’s most decorated servicemen. When the
dogs are howling, the shutters are banging and the rain lashes hard
against blackened windows, they are the dedicated few who risk their
lives to help save the lives of others.
Chivenor’s 22 Squadron A Flight – the airborne guardians
of our seas, coasts, crags and cliffs – is on course to record
its busiest year yet.
One of three Search and Rescue detachments in the UK – alongside
Wattisham (B Flight) and Valley (C Flight) – A Flight has already
been scrambled on 260 jobs this year and is expected to exceed the
251 rescues in 2004, and 284 in 2005. According to Squadron Leader
Dave Webster, based at the SAR headquarters at RAF St Mawgan in
Cornwall, it is a trend that is being reflected nationally: “This
is our busiest summer ever nationally,” he told the Gazette.
“So far, the rolling total of lives saved across the UK stands
at 1,568.
“The figure probably has something to do with the good weather
we have had this year, better communications with the police and
ambulance service, and with the rise in popularity in various water
sports such as surfing and pleasure boating.”
With two crews on duty 24 hours a day, 22 Sqn A Flt provides an
all-weather, year-round emergency response capability. The first
crew can be airborne within 15 minutes during day and 45 minutes
at night, with the second crew on one-hour standby.
The unit’s two Sea King rescue helicopters provide cover for
a one-hour flight radius that takes in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and
Somerset, much of Wales and Birmingham, and 250 miles of Atlantic
Ocean.
“Our golden hour of medical care means that anyone can be reached
and receive treatment within one hour,” said Flt Lt Andy McGreevy.
“Although military aviation and rescuing downed aircrew is
our primary responsibility, this only accounts for two per cent
of actual call-outs,” he added.
“Ninety eight per cent of call-outs are civilian pick-ups and
can include sea, coast and cliff rescue, as well as overland mountain
rescues, road traffic collisions and local medical transfers to
specialist hospitals in London.”
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