Helicopter rescue

Maritime News Marine Incidents
1

Do you know what to do if you ever get in a situation where a helicopter evacuation at sea is require?:

PS> Not evacuation of non-essential personnel in preparation for a TRS from a rig or vessel with helideck.

This used to be one of my pet subjects when carrying out OVID inspections etc.:

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The UK Coast guard exercising with the SCHOKLAND near Dover
Photo : Jan van Vuuren CE o/b Schokland ©

BTW; Sometimes it is safer to do the pickup from the water, which was the case in two resent rescues off the coast of NW Norway. (Hagland Captain, Eemslift Hendrika)

2

after 10 years of heli skiing in NZ I have seen some of the most dangerous things you can do around a helicopter in the offshore industry whilst we followed the rules…

3

Can you give examples as they relate to marine evacuations?

4

sorry my comment wasnt on rescue it was operations on platforms.

Helicopter rescue particularity good in big sailing nations as they get lots of practice and in the UK you can request a rescue for practice.

I do have one great story on rescue in the USA, a boat and crew I was on for a year and just left got caught out in the perfect storm ( I guess NOAA’s computers down?)
They stepped up into liferaft in the morning, got onto a passing bulker, got into chopper when they were just in range of Cape Hatteras, chopper was at max range…had to auto-gyrate onto the beach at the naval station, I call that a close shave. The last guy winched up in the basket was done when flying as the pilot knew he was low.

The chopper pilot joked as they flew ashore, the c-130 that was overhead last night made a bet with us you wouldnt be there in the morning, 100kts wind 100’ waves all night, down to about 30kts in the morning.
They lost, you won.

The only people rescued in the Perfect storm.