HM Coastguard has signed a £1.6billion contract with Bristow Helicopters to continue providing search and rescue helicopters and planes around Britain’s coast – including here on the Isle of Wight – for another 10 years.
It has been confirmed that Coastguard helicopters will continue to be based out of Lee-on-Solent covering the Isle of Wight and surrounding areas.
The new contract will see the UK benefit from both innovation and advances in technology to save more lives, even more quickly. It will include the use of a mobile Schiebel S-100 drone as well as 18 helicopters and 6 fixed-wing planes based out of Doncaster, Prestwick and Newquay.
Bristow has provided the UK’s search and rescue helicopter service for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) since 2013.
To aid the training of life-saving helicopter pilots and crew, a new state-of-the-art search and rescue helicopter simulation training facility will be built at Lee-on-Solent next to the Coastguard Training Facility, which will house a synthetic rescue hoist and helicopter suspended over a large training pool.
Damien Oliver, Senior Responsible Owner for the UKSAR2G contract, has said:
“We know there are people alive today because an HM Coastguard helicopter came to their rescue. When looking at the next decade of service and rescue services, the thought of the future people whose lives may well also be saved as a result of this contract was a huge incentive to make sure this will build on that success and improve it still further. I am also delighted that we can continue to support the work of our partners across Government in all the work that they do”.
Excellent news for us all. A friend was airlifted after an accident in a remote spot, and she owes her life to these guys and gals and their abilities.