Sea King (Photo: Ronnie Macdonald)
Members of the Cairngorms Mountain Rescue Team have added their voices to calls for the privatisation of the UK’s military search and rescue helicopter service to be stopped on the basis that the new system will result in fewer people being saved.
The Guardian newspaper reports that Willie Anderson, team leader of Cairngorms MRT commented on the planned civilian service that, “Someone will have one eye on the casualty and the other eye on the balance sheet.”
The current system is a mix of military bases (8) and civilian bases (4). The Government has been planning to change the service in advance of the retirement of the ageing Sea King helicopters in 2016 and wants to focus military effort on front line activities. The plan is to reduce this to 10 privately operated bases, likely to be flying smaller aircraft. Critics of the plans have voiced concerns that the new helicopters may not have the same range, especially over mountainous areas and that pilots may not be able to fly in the adverse weather conditions often encountered during rescues and that they will lack the experience of the military who have been involved in SAR for the last 70 years. The Government is expected to announce which companies will be running the new service later this spring with the start date expected to be 2016.
Concerns have been raised in Parliament at the Transport Select Committee. The Guardian reported that Bill Whitehouse, chairman of the British Cave Rescue Council, said: “There’s concern whether the smaller aircraft will be able to do everything the Sea King can. Obviously there’s nervousness when you see change coming. We’re happy with what we’ve got. To what extent would a new commercial service pull out the stops when the chips are down? Will they point to a contract and say, ‘that’s not in it’?”
Another Cairngorms MRT member, Willie Ross, said: “To be basic and brutal about it, as soon as you introduce a profit into it, you’re in a different ball game altogether.”