It’s amazing how many people still don’t understand that they’re allowed to say mean things outside the pit, as long as it isn’t directed at another poster. You can call the Britsh government a pack of goat fuckers if you want.
It will all end in tears. Sooner or later the private contractor will fail to respond to an emergency quoting some bullshit “Health and Safety” reason. There will be a short lived public outcry, politicians will say “lessons will be learned” and it will be forgotten until some other poor sap dies.
One thing I’m sure of. If I was in need of SAR services I’d much rather it was being provided by well trained military personnel than by a private company whose primary concern was shareholder profit.
The older I get the more I loathe and despise the political classes who have destroyed so many of the things that I used to be proud of in my country.
Old military joke: ‘Remember this aircraft was built by the lowest bidder.’ 
I agree with everyone who said SAR should remain with the military. Not to belittle civilian operations – several aircrews dies every year in ‘life flight’ evacuations when they go out in poor weather – but if I were stuck in the ocean I’d much rather see a USCG Jayhawk coming for me than anything a civilian operator might bring. From what I’ve seen, Coasties have big brass ones that clang when they walk.
But unless there’s a major war going on, can’t the military SAR unit also take care of civilians?
According to the report in today’s * Independent* newspaper, the helicopters that will be used are faster, though fewer in number, down from 40 in active service(but a number of those are down for maintenance or training missions etc) to 22. How many of those 22 will be available when you take into account maintenance? Rather fewer than 22 I suspect.
Apparently some bean counter has done the numbers and boasts that these new machines will be able to reach their targets faster due to their higher speeds, and that means they will be able to deliver the same service to around 85% of the area that is currently covered.
It means we are paying £1.6 billion for a 15% worse service, don’t forget that these are faster but smaller machines with a lower passenger capacity, so in some cases it will take two machines, to achieve the same result from more spread out service, hence rescue in major incidents will take longer.
I wonder what that 15% figure actually means, since a number of these will be far longer waiting times than currently experienced, because this is how you do the averages and doctor the figures, you just select all the inconvenient data and filter it out - its a form of cherry picking.
It means one in 7 incidents taking a lot longer to deal with that previously, and when you are in the water, or your vessel is sinking I imagine that this may seem relevant number.
…to quote Gordon Lightfoot
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
I understand he has the required qualifications, but there are no opening in this branch, currently.