Fishermen fue choppers amid fears slower service ight to keep rescwill lead to deaths
FISHERMEN yesterday warned lives will be lost at sea if one of Scotland's two search and rescue bases closes.
Helicopters from RAF Lossiemouth have rescued nearly 50 fishing boat crews and more than 500 climbers since 2005.
But they could be axed by the closure of the base under privatisation of the country's search and rescue service.
That could mean helicopters being sent to help str icken vessels in the North Sea from RAF Boulmer in Northumberland, adding at least 30 vital minutes to arrival times.
A trawler skipper rescued by a copter from Lossiemouth yesterday urged the Government not to axe the flying life-savers.
George Stephen, 58, made a mayday call when water gushed into his boat, Lead Us, 50 miles out to sea last January.
The helicopter raced to the stricken boat in under an hour and saved it from disaster by helping to pump out the water.
George, from St Combs, Aberdeenshire, said: "Without the search and rescue helicopter, the boat could have gone down.
"I've had help from search and rescue helicopters about half a dozen times over my 40-year fishing career.
"I've twice had pumps flown out and crew have also been taken offwith injuries.
"The helicopter is a saviour. It saves lives. What price can you put on that? "There are lot of other things politicians could cut to save money. They don't seem to realise we live on an island. There is still a large seafaring community and there are a lot of boats out there."
Snp Banff and Buchan MP Eilidh Whiteford said: "The government will put lives at risk by closing the search and rescue services. The helicopters from Lossiemouth have played a key role in the rescue of fishing boats and climbers over many years.
"Lossiemouth is the obvious and best strategic location for this cover."
Scottish Fishermen's Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong said: "The burning question is what will the service be replaced by."
Search and rescue helicopter cover is also provided by the Royal Navy at Prestwick in Ayrshire. In the £7billion privatisation deal, the RAF and Royal Navy will be stripped of their role of running rescue helicopters.
Their 36 ageing Sea Kings wi l l be decommissioned and the service contracted out to a French-US consortium, which includes the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Half of Britain's coastguard stations are also to be scrapped.
A government spokesman said: "The Department for Transport and Ministry of Defence are committed to ensuring the high standard of helicopter search and rescue is maintained while providing value for money to the taxpayer.
"An announcement regarding the review has been postponed for commercially sensitive reasons. It would be inappropriate to comment on any specif ic aspects in advance of a further announcement."
0 comments:
Post a Comment