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Minister for Shipping Mike Penning
undertook a fact-finding visit to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s
Solent Rescue and Co-ordination Centre.
Britain’s Coastguard Service is kept very busy
as Chief Coastguard Rod Johnson explains,.
Her Majesty’s Coastguard has an operating area which encompasses all 10,500 miles
of the coast of the UK and about a million square miles of ocean
we go from nearly to the Arctic Circle out to mid-Atlantic
and then down into much warmer waters.
We deal with about 20,000 incidents a year and we’re based at 19
sites that look pretty much like this one.
We deal with absolutely everything from sinking ships, fires and oil spills
to lost children and dogs that get out of their depth
we deal with everything.
Well it’s massively important and for people that live on the coast
they do think of them with the other three emergency services.
Their role, whether it be cliff rescues or sea rescues,
are actually moving inland as well these days, is vitally important.
That’s what I was telling the people here today
how much we appreciate the service they do to the community.
This station’s open 24 hours a day. We’re in touch with a mariner;
if they alert us to a distress then we will plot the position of that
devise a plan and allocate search units to it
they could be lifeboats from the RNLI, our own helicopter
or our own brigade of Coastguard Rescue Officers.
So the helicopter you’ve seen today is an Augusta Westland 139.
It’s equipped to deal with the kind of rapid fire
incidents that we get down here
It’s very quick 165 knots in still air it can take up to eight people
has a dedicated crew of four and it’s fitted with the
last word in sensors and avionics.
So it’s a very capable, very modern machine.
And this was a fantastic helicopter.
I mean, the stability in the air, you can tell how safe it was.
Now all helicopters, they tell me, are safe
but when you fly in them you know the difference
and actually this was a fantastic helicopter and a great crew.
We are very highly regarded on the world stage.
We operate at a very high standard.
I’m constantly being asked to facilitate training opportunities from other countries.
Our procedures have been adopted lock, stock and barrel by other countries.
So we are a world leader at this.
Their dedication is fantastic. We should be very proud of them.