History of Royal Navy Helicopter Search and Rescue

The History of Royal Navy Helicopter Search and Rescue has its roots in the adoption by the Royal Navy of helicopters in the plane guard role. From a purely military tasking Royal Navy squadrons came to share the provision of search and rescue SAR coverage for the United Kingdom with the Royal Air Force and commercial providers under contract to Her Majesty's Coastguard, being responsible for two sectors out of twelve. From 2015 both the RAF and the Navy will surrender the civilian SAR role to contractors operating on behalf of the Coastguard.

Royal Navy Search and Rescue had been conducted by helicopters at sea since their introduction on warships. It was decided in 1953 to provide a dedicated helicopter Search and Rescue capability for downed Fleet Air Arm pilots from their home shore establishments. The first Royal Navy Air Stations to stand up their SAR units in 1953 were:

The Westland Dragonfly would remain in service in the SAR role with the Royal Navy, alongside the Westland Whirlwind, until 1964. The Whirlwind had a greater range of 300 nm and was faster with a Vmax of 95kts. More complicated rescues would also be undertaken by the Whirlwinds with their increased crew size and rescue capabilities. The Whirlwind HAR.5 had space to rescue 8 people.

An urgent request for help was given to the Royal Navy after the extensive North Sea flooding of East Anglia and the Netherlands on the night of 31 January 1953. 12 Dragonfly HR.1 and HR.3 helicopters were dispatched from 705 Naval Air Squadron from their base at RNAS Gosport (HMS Siskin). During the 7 hours flying in response to the floods 840 people were rescued; one single pilot was responsible for 111 of these, and another 102. For the life-saving efforts the Commanding Officer, Lt Cdr HR Spedding, was awarded the MBE and Aircrewman IS Craig the British Empire Medal.

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