dublinpilot wrote:
I do seem to remember one a few years ago where they knew in advance that they were going to ditch (fuel starvation or exhaustion) and the coast guard was able to fly along side and drop life rafts etc just after they ditched.
You may reference an SR22 being ferried from US West Coast to Hawaïï.
The supplemental fuel soft tank installed on the back seat did not worked as planned (or ceased to function properly), at a time where the aircraft was past the non-return point.
He was vectored toward a nearby cruise ship, and a Coast Guard C130 was dispatched and recorded the whole sequence on the FLIR.
The C130 dropped rescue package, and the pilot was safely recovered by the cruise ship.
This is a makeshift map of rescue helicopter ranges over the atlantic :
Helicopters can also refuel on oil rigs.
Thank you for posting that jeff64
I’ve never seen CAPS deployment before and it was a lot more dramatic than I was expecting. The plane definitely landed the right way up, but the wind and parachute turned it over quickly. Not sure I’d get four people out of the PA28 door in that time. One website says there was a 9-12 foot swell.
It’s a bit of a special case, being a ferry flight with insufficient fuel for destination but still 3 hours endurance to coordinate a rescue. I have previously heard that the USCG are excellent at this (it is their job, but still). Despite ditching in the close vicinity of the cruise ship the pilot still spent 30 minutes in the water.
The report made me smile: “The NTSB did not travel to the scene of this accident.”
In the air over water there are often spectacular rescues.
I recall a ferry flight getting lost somewhere between the US and Australia where a Cessna 188 got lost while trying to find Norfolk Island. Eventually a DC10 of Air New Zealand got close enough to assist him. The pilot eventually spotted an oil rig which enabled Vette to located him and they managed to guide him to Norfolk, where he landed safely. The Captain involved was famed for it, Gordon Vette, who became quite famous as a consequence. The whole crew was given an award for outstanding airmanship by McDonnell Douglas.
Gordon Brooks, the FE of that flight, was later killed in the Mt Erebus disaster. Vette became very well respected for his efforts to investigate that crash.
A small bit of research found this article about this feat:
A Cessna landed on an iceflow after engine failure on a transatlantic delivery. It sank to wing level. The two crew escaped. The Canadian Coastguard abandoned the search.
An ice-capable fishing boat skipper heard the news, headed to the position, and rescued them.
Not Atlantic but closer a couple of weekends ago, I was at local armed forces demonstration in Mallorca. The local SAR squadron operates both these
They had a booth where they were showcasing their means. I was discussing with one of their crewmembers who told us about practicing the deployment of actual “rescue chains”. Interestingly, the “chains” typically carry two liferafts as well as medical and food supplies in separate bundles, tied by quite long ropes . They practice (at the bay of Pollensa) launching it in a turn upwind of the survivors in the water to kind of encircle them with the “chain” . As long as one survivor reaches one point of the floating rope, they can access the raft maybe 300ft away at the end of the rope by “simply” pulling . The “chains” are permanently carried on the rear ramps of standby SAR aircraft.
There is also a locally based one of these
and together they provide some good coverage of the western Med.
Jujupilote wrote:
I think ICAO has a obligation to states to provide SAR on one’s FIR.
When lives are at stake, it seems units typically go beyond borders, hopefully in a coordinated effort.
When, back in 2005 the Voyager cruise ship lost all power in a storm just west of Sardinia, deep into Marseille FIR , a Spanish SAR helo was dispatched from Mallorca 200nm west of the site, and was there within two hours after request for assistance, filming the below. I guess a French helo from Solenzara could have been on site at the same time, but I don’t know if it was dispatched. Sardinia and Decimomannu were obviously much closer.
This was the one that I was thinking of.
