Air Sea Rescue ends at Shannon

In an almost text book copy of the air sea rescue which took place on December 10 last, the USAF yesterday airlifted an incapacitated seaman from a container ship off the west coast of Ireland.

On Thursday evening the UK Rescue Coordination Centre requested the assistance of the USAF 56th Rescue Squadron after the crewman, a chef on the Marshall Island registered "Pascha" fell ill with some form of acute internal problem according to Col. Jay Silvera, commander of Lakenheath's 48th Fighter Wing.

Two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters of the 56th Rescue squadron were joined by pararescuemen from the 321st Special Tactics Squadron at Mildenhall and departed Lakenheath at approximately 5.00am Friday.

As with December's rescue the target was outside the range of the helicopters so an MC-130P Hercules, serial 69-5828 from the 352nd Special Operations Group at Mildenhall using call sign "RESCUE 5828" was dispatched to refuel the choppers. The first uplift is believed to have taken place in the Irish sea.

The range of the mission was such that even the Hercules couldn't loiter for the duration of the mission, thus requiring the assistance of KC-135 serial 58-0093, call sign "QUID 87" from the 100th Air Refuelling wing at Mildenhall.

A Nimrod from RAF Kinloss provided top cover for the mission.

"The combination of the three frames is what's key", Col. Silvera said of the reason for the Air Forces involvement in Friday's rescue." The C-130 can refuel the helicopters to extend their legs and the KC-135 can refuel the C-130 to extend their time. You can't do it without all three."

The first sign that the mission was nearing a conclusion was when Gulfstream 4 N129MH, relayed a message to Shannon on 124.7 from "QUID 87" that he was at position 52 59N 11 56W heading eastbound.

The Hercules was the first to recover to Shannon arriving at 16:06 utc with the helicopters using call sign 'RESCUE 212 FLIGHT" touching down on taxiway Alpha at 16:32 utc.

Pictured above, at top, MC-130P 69-5828, "RESCUE 5828" touches down on R06 while at bottom 89-26205 and 89-26212, "RESCUE 212 FLIGHT" turn onto Taxiway Alpha to rendezvous with a waiting ambulance on Taxiway 11.

Both the Hercules and HH-60G 89-26205 were involved in the December rescue of a crewman on a Panamanian registered ship off the west coast.