16 Facts About Air-sea rescue

1.

Air-sea rescue operations carried out during times of conflict have been credited with saving valuable trained and experienced airmen.

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2.

Early air-sea rescue operations were performed by flying boats or floatplanes, with the first dedicated unit operating such aircraft being established near the final months of World War I While initially restricted to in-shore operations and with limited equipment, capabilities and resources would be expanded over the following decades.

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3.

Air-sea rescue operations have been prominent in several major conflicts, such as the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Falklands War.

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4.

An early air-sea rescue was performed in August 1911 by Hugh Robinson who landed his Curtiss Aeroplane Company seaplane on Lake Michigan to pull a crashed pilot out of the water.

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5.

Air-sea rescue witnessed first-hand the deficiencies in the rescue system when a seaplane tender, despatched to save the survivors of an airplane crash in the Solent, arrived too late to save them before they drowned.

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6.

Air-sea rescue immediately began to press his commanding officer for the introduction of fast motorboat launches as rescue boats.

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7.

In 1935, Lieutenant Colonel Konrad Goltz of the German Air Force, a supply officer based at the port of Kiel, was given the task of organizing the Seenotdienst, an air-sea rescue organization focusing on the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

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8.

German Seenotdienst Air-sea rescue boats based at Hornum worked with He 59s to save some twenty British airmen from the icy water.

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9.

Churchill argued that Air-sea rescue aircraft were not anticipated by the treaty, and were not covered.

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10.

The first hoist lift Air-sea rescue occurred on 29 November 1945, when a barge ran aground at Penfield Reef, off Fairfield, Connecticut, during heavy weather, very near to the Sikorsky facility in Bridgeport.

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11.

The first military helicopter air-sea rescue was carried out in 1946 when a Sikorsky S-51 being demonstrated to the US Navy was used in an emergency to pull a downed Navy pilot from the ocean.

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12.

Additionally, the same helicopter that is capable of air-sea rescue can take part in a wide variety of other operations including those on land.

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13.

Air-sea rescue is provided by its fleet of seven Airbus Helicopters H175.

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14.

Aircraft for an air-sea rescue were originally provided by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

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15.

New York Police Department has, since 1986, operated a coordinated air-sea rescue program based at Floyd Bennett Field, where scuba divers were stationed in shifts at a hangar containing helicopter rescue aircraft.

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16.

The NYPD Aviation Unit operates night vision-equipped Bell 412 helicopters which fly to Air-sea rescue locations carrying two pilots, one crew chief and two scuba divers.

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