NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2010


Escape from Athena –


thanks to 771


ALTHOUGH they weren’t called upon to rescue its crew, the fl iers of 771 Naval Air Squadron helped ensure a factory fi shing vessel did not sink off Cornwall. The Athena caught fire 225 miles south-west of the Scillies and most of its 111 crew abandoned ship, leaving a firefighting team to try to contain the blaze.


Those who took to the


lifeboats were picked up by another ship in the Atlantic. But the fi re on the Athena continued to rage and the Ace of Clubs were called on to ferry specialist fi refi ghters aboard with the stricken vessel by now 15 miles off Lizard Point. The Sea Kings winched


experts from the Maritime Incident Response Group (set up under the banner of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency) on to Athena to assess the state of the vessel.


A few hours later, the helicopter was scrambled again, this time to ferry additional pumps aboard the Athena which was listing badly and in danger of capsizing. The Sea King also delivered replenishment breathing apparatus from Falmouth Fire Station.


And a few hours later, the 771


chaps were on the scene again; the vessel had been deemed unstable by the fi refi ghters and evacuation was ordered. A combined operation by


Falmouth’s lifeboat, a pilot boat and 771 ensured all 28 people still on the Athena were safely brought off. All electrical supplies on board


the Athena failed during this fi nal evolution leaving the winching area in total darkness. The ship did not founder, nor


was this end of the Culdrose fl iers’ involvement. Two days later they were called upon to pluck a salvage team to safety from the vessel as the weather off the Cornish coast deteriorated. The Athena rescues came in the middle of several manic days off the Cornish coast which saw 771 scrambled ten times in under 100 hours.


The Sea Kings stood by to help the Polish sail training ship Frederyk Chopin with 47 people on board, including three dozen children.


The Chopin was dismasted in gales off Cornwall. She was eventually towed to Falmouth by a fi shing boat without the need to rescue the crew.


LIEUTENANTS Tim Leckey and Mark Rose are the fi rst: the fi rst naval pilots to pass the new training course for Search and Rescue fl iers.


the very fi nal Basic Observer Course to receive instruction on the


bringing the curtain down on more than 30 years of training at RNAS Culdrose. We’ll deal with the SAR


chaps fi rst.


A shake-up of rescue training means less time on general helicopter instruction at RAF Shawbury... …and rather more time on dedicated SAR instruction at RAF Valley, 80 miles to the northwest, under the new Multi-Engine Rotary Wing Search and Rescue course with SARTU, the SAR Training Unit.


e


ning AR e


course begins at Shawbury and shares the same syllabus as those naval pilots going Jungly, Bagger, Merlin or Lynx. After understanding the basics


The fi rst few weeks of the new venerable Jetstream And the last? Eight BOCs – trainer,


of fl ying the Griffi n (with real and simulated cockpit time) so students could handle the helicopter, the prospective SAR fl iers parted company with their FAA comrades to focus on rescue training (they did make a few trips back to Shawbury to fl y sorties which couldn’t be conducted from Valley, and to make use of the Shropshire air station’s simulators).


climbers and walkers off mountain tops...).


Once in the hands of SARTU the rookie pilots practise ‘easier’ facets of Search and Rescue missions – instrument fl ying, carrying underslung loads,


in confi ned areas – followed by ‘trickier’ SAR ops: winching over water and on to boat decks, fl ying in the mountains and next to cliffs,


manoeuvring


Thanks to its location on Anglesey’s south-west coast, Valley is top-notch for learning the art of SAR – the environs offer lots of water (courtesy of the Irish Sea), lots of cliffs (handy if you’re posted to Culdrose) and the peaks of Snowdonia (useful if you’re posted to Gannet, who spend the bulk of their time plucking


on coa for –


o


as well as picking up downed aircrew (the reason SAR units were born...), assisted by ‘personal locator beacons’. Another key part of the new


between mountains and carrying out winching.


Trainees put all that they learned at Valley into practise, decamping fi rst to HMS Gannet via the Isle of Man and Lake District.


They’re expected to land on an


oil rig and winch on to a passenger ferry before the very fi nal test of the course – the ‘wings trip’ where the head of SARTU, Sqn Ldr Jamie Mitchell, assesses the pilots. So no pressure there, then. That


‘wings trip’ sees the


students rescuing two downed fast- jet crew who’ve ejected over the Welsh mountains and need to be found, picked up and transferred to hospital. Both naval aviators passed the inaugural


course and


received their wings from Rear Admiral Simon Charlier,


formally the


former head of the Fleet Air Arm and now the operating director of the Military Aviation Authority. Meanwhile in southern Wales...


The training reaches its climax with a two-day Search and Rescue exercise – think Thursday War for SAR pilots (except that it’s not on a Thursday. Or off Plymouth. Or involves FOSTies, low- fl ying Hawks...).


e jinking


course is the chance to use night vision goggles – mainstays of many rescue missions – culminating in four training fl ights using the cumbersome goggles,


The last in a long line of helicopter observers who’ve trained on the Jetstream trainer courtesy of 750 NAS at Culdrose since 1978 found their navigational skills tested to the limit in the Brecon Beacons – and there wasn’t a Jetstream in sight. As offi cers, the eight rookie


The fi rst and the last


13


Empire s trikes gold for Dan


TV PRESENTER Dan Snow has won a ‘naval Oscar’ for his series championing the Royal Navy’s key role in forging modern Britain.


Dan and his Empire of the


Seas – a four-part documentary screened on BBC2 earlier this year – were arguably the most high-profi le winners at the annual Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Awards. The ceremony celebrates all those who seek to promote the importance of the sea and the Royal Navy to the UK’s security and prosperity; they take their name from Fleet Street’s last naval correspondent, the late Desmond Wettern. Countess Mountbatten of


Burma presented the top prize – the Desmond Wettern Media Award – to journalist and broadcaster, Tom MacSweeney, a long-time presenter of Irish radio’s weekly maritime programme Seascape. Empire of the Seas took the Donald Gosling Award as the best television, fi lm or radio production of the past 12 months. The Wolf, the gripping tale of


● SARTU detour... Lts Tim Leckey (left) and Mark Rose on the tarmac at HMS Gannet during the fi nal test of their abilities as Search and Rescue pilots


a WW1 German surface raider which led the Allies a merry dance, took the Mountbatten Maritime Award, collected by its authors Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen, who fl ew all the way from Australia to the Institute of Directors in London for the ceremony.


observers will be expected to work as a team and lead junior sailors. So to learn the arts of bonding and leadership, where better than a week at the RN’s outdoor activity centre at Tal-y-bont. The eight students


it’s not training.


know, hard to believe in the autumn...) but their complaints about the climate were lightly brushed aside by instructors: if it’s not raining,


Among the challenges the


observers faced were navigation in the rain (and limited visibility), rescuing a ‘lost child’, negotiating a fl ooded tunnel,


rescuing a


downed pilot and stretchering him across a river, and, once dried out, organise a pub quiz for junior rates undergoing leadership training at Tal-y-bont (minus pub...


and


minus alcohol). The reward for all these efforts?


Why, an intense training session courtesy of Army PTIs at a nearby barracks. Still, at least it was dry... And so back to Culdrose, BOC


and the Jetstream T2; the twin- prop bows out of service once the current course completes in 2011 with the (very similar looking – even down to the livery) King Air Avenger taking over.


BRITISH LIMBLESS EX-SERVICE Déjà vu – it’s the Merlin Mk2


IN WHAT has been a pretty bleak month for naval aviators, here at least is one welcome sight. This is the world’s fi rst Merlin Mk2 taking to the skies. Yes, we know it looks just like


the old one – with the exception of the orange ‘fi shing rod’ at the front.


its cover. counts.


But don’t judge a book by It’s what’s inside that


The Mk2 is the same airframe as the Mk1, which has been in service with the Fleet Air Arm since 1998. But inside, the original wizardry which made the Merlin the best anti-submarine helicopter out there has been stripped out... ...and new-improved wizardry


has been installed.


improved computer power, improved avionics, enhanced radar and sonar and large touch-screen panels for the aircrew to improve the ‘human-machine interface’. Some 30 Merlins in the Royal


Navy inventory will be upgraded to Mk2s under a £750m contract signed by Whitehall with defence giant Lockheed Martin,


trials aircraft, the fi rst of which underwent a 35-minute test fl ight at AgustaWestland in Yeovil – the Merlin’s builder. The short fl ight checked the Mk2’s new avionics, management system,


aircraft cockpit


which


has overseen the Navy’s Merlin programme since the early 90s. Four of those are dedicated


Basically displays,


aircraft’s handling, avionics and mission systems before the next- generation Merlin is handed over to Boscombe Down towards the end of next year for extensive testing in the hands of RN aviators and experts from defence research fi rm QinetiQ. After that, the fi rst Mk2 is due to enter service with the Fleet Air Arm in 2013 and be operational the following year. And the ‘fi shing rod’? Well


it’s actually a calibrated pitot tube which cross references the information on the aircraft’s sensors with the data it picks up outside...


Picture: Lockheed Martin


navigation systems. Further trials will evaluate the


communications and


MEN’S ASSOCIATION BLESMA supports all those ex-Service men and women who have lost limbs, the use of their limbs, or one or both eyes. At the outbreak ofWorldWar II and all conflicts since, many Members of BLESMA went toWar young and whole. They came home disabled for life. The Association offers them the fellowship of shared experience, the welfare support they need and have fought for their interests over all the long years. Whilst we do not wish to receive new Members, due to the present situation and conflict in Afghanistan and as service life takes its inevitable toll, it is unavoidable that we shall do so. It is very important therefore that we are here to assist them in their recovery and rehabilitation from their injuries. We receive no Government Grants and rely wholly on the generosity of the public. Please consider making a donation now or a legacy in the future,however small, to: Frankland Moore House, 185-187 High Road, Chadwell Heath, Romford, Essex RM6 6NA Tel: 020 8590 1124 Fax: 020 8599 2932 E: headquarters@blesma.org Web: www.blesma.org


Please consider giving to those that gave so much and ask for so little in return. Registered Charity No’s 1084189, SC010315


helping limbless service & ex-service men & women for more than 75 years


were welcomed to Wales by


torrential rain (we


The best academic work of the past 12 months was Nicholas Black’s British Naval Staff in the First World War; its author received the Society for Nautical Research Anderson Medal. And there was a special


Maritime Fellowship Award for American undersea explorer David Mearns for a lifetime of work solving the mysteries of the deep. He has found the wrecks of HMS Hood, the bulk carrier Derbyshire and ‘Australia’s Titanic’ – HMAS Sydney. As well as awards for


journalists, authors and TV producers, the Wetterns also recognise Royal Navy and Royal Marines ships or units which keep themselves in the public eye. The Desmond Wettern Fleet


Award ‘for the best media contribution’ this year goes to HMS Kent which featured heavily in local, national and international media thanks to her appearance at a Swedish royal wedding and Armed Forces Day in Cardiff.


The small but very active (both in PR and in general terms) HMS Archer won the small ship award, HMS Turbulent was deemed the boat which did the most for Silent Service public relations and HMS Ark Royal was praised for its use of the internet and new media. Finally, HMS Portland took


the Navy News award for efforts to promote her activities on two demanding deployments through our pages. She set an example to which every deployed ship should aspire.


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