On Wednesday 17 October, teams from Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, France and Italy took part in the international search and rescue meeting as SAR helicopters had to show their ability during different exercises on the beach of Koksijde, Belgium.

“Search and Rescue” missions
The base of Koksijde, located at the Belgian coast and responsible for the “Search and Rescue” mission on Belgian territory, performs its task by using the Seaking MK 48 with a crew of six. This task is executed by sea and by land.

The crew is at the disposal for all kinds of tasks, like evacuating injured people of a ship, looking for missing people, supplying sandbags in case of floods, urgent transportation of burnt people to specialized medical centres, the transportation of heavy artillery, … and this 24 hours a day.

Not only Belgium, with its 40° Squadron Helicopter, but also our neighboring countries fulfill a similar mission. It is obvious that every country uses its own methods to execute this mission. This diversity in working methods is in this respect interesting, if there is sufficient communication between the different services, to gather a common determining factor which can only lead to an even better service.

In this respect the idea originated from the 40° Squadron Helicopter to invite different nations. Because of a professional competition ties between the different Squadrons are strengthened, directed towards an exchange of ideas and working methods.

The SAR-MEET 2007 did not aim at the judgment of the flying capacities of the different teams but pays attention to the speed and precision of the working methods of the technical personnel.

The thread through this whole happening was the importance of team spirit. The competition was arranged in such a way that a successful result only had a chance in succeeding if the whole teams cooperated professionally.

Scramble event on 17th October 2007
Wednesday morning, we were brought to surf club Windekind in Oostduinkerke where we were welcomed and offered a drink and could take place inside or outside to watch the ‘precision winching event’ at low tide, close to the surf club. The police and fire department Koksijde were on the spot to secure the safety around the ‘winching‘ area and to guarantee a safe distance from the spectators.

The aim of this test was to judge the reaction time and execution of the different teams. Every team got a certain scenario where the actual aim was to perform a winching at sea.

… And the winner was the Dutch team from Leeuwarden
Agusta AB-412 SP equipped Royal Netherlands Air Force N° 303 SAR Squadron were the overall winners of the Search and Rescue Meet organised by Belgian Air Component’s 40° Squadron. 

Congratulations to the Dutch team and also to other participants and big thanks to the Belgian militaries for the outstanding organization of the event.

Source: Skycontrol
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