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A Royal Navy rescue helicopter in action above a boat An Auckland Rescue Helicopter in action. Air-sea rescue (ASR or A/SR, also known as sea-air rescue), [1] and aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (AMSAR) by the ICAO and IMO, [2] is the coordinated search and rescue (SAR) of the survivors of emergency water landings as well as people who have survived the loss of their seagoing vessel.
An informal air-sea rescue was started in July 1940 by Flying Officer Russell Aitken, who with the approval of his senior officer at RAF Gosport, began flying a Supermarine Walrus to rescue pilots downed in the English Channel. By the end of August, when he ceased this work, he had rescued around 35 British and German aircrew. [4]
During the Second World War, the retrieval of pilots and aircrew who had been shot down over, or who had had to ditch in, the sea around the British Isles was the responsibility of the Royal Air Force Marine Branch, (motto: "The sea shall not have them"). Rescue of downed aircrew was coordinated using RAF aircraft, aircraft operated by Coastal ...
After the war MCS was granted full branch status on 11 December 1947; [1] however, post-war the role of the new branch became greatly reduced with the end of the British Empire, the withdrawal of flying boats from service, and the increasing use of helicopters in air-sea rescue. The branch was disestablished on 8 January 1986. [1]
No. 1 Air Sea Rescue Unit (North Africa) RAF (1943) became No. 1 Air Sea Rescue Flight (North Africa) RAF [58] No. 1 British Airways Repair Unit (Middle East) RAF (1943-44) became No. 168 Maintenance Unit RAF [ 20 ]
The 64 ft. high-speed, air/sea rescue launch built by British Power Boat Company (BPBC) was one of the earliest high-speed offshore rescue vessel used by the Royal Air Force. [1] The prototype, numbered 100, gave its name to the class as the "100 class"; High Speed Launch 102 is the only surviving boat from that class. [1]
The Royal Air Force (RAF) can trace such training back to May 1943 with the formation of the School of Air/Sea Rescue, located near RAF Squire Gate, in Lancashire. The school taught RAF and USAAF crews rescue procedures and familiarisation with rescue equipment. [ 5 ]
Crash rescue boat of the Air Sea Rescue Service. For Those in Peril was designed to publicise a little-known unit of the Royal Air Force, the Air Sea Rescue Unit, which was set up in 1941 to save those in distress at sea, particularly airmen who had been shot down or forced to ditch in the water. In common with a number of other war-related ...