Police Aviation News January 2011

Police Aviation News January 2011 7
pants off it… over 600 since the summer …. So adding the earlier model apparently makes
sense in what is a deteriorating security situation in the north.
With the mooted National cuts on the mainland one wonders where they might find some
slack if the security problem goes awry nationwide?
None of the UK police forces is trained in rescue techniques, most SAR and winch work is
left to the expertise of the military. From time to time the police are called to incidents where
the military expertise is too far away and the pressure on the untrained to do ‘something’ is
just overwhelming. Happily on numerous occasions ad-hoc rescues have been gratifyingly
successful, crew members hanging out of doors or astride skids have managed to grab and
save people that would otherwise have died waiting for the experts. The situation is somewhat
worse in the north of Ireland mainly because the peace process saw the removal of
military SAR [mainly 72 Squadron Westland Wessex] and reliance on more distant assets.
Distance brings deaths, and there is plenty of distance.
Last month a 51-year-old man died after falling through the ice at a lake in Lurgan Park. It
was reported that he was in difficulties and the police EC135 arrived to try and effect a rescue.
Officers in the helicopter managed to hoist the man from the water onto the ice but
were unable to lift him off it. Meanwhile other emergency services tried to reach him in a
light boat only to have their craft flipped over by the downdraft from the helicopter - depositing
the occupants, two from the fire service and a paramedic, into the freezing water. Two
swam ashore and one was rescued by the Fire Service special rescue team. They were
hospitalised.
The man who was the focus of the initial rescue operation, was brought to shore and