872 people saved by UK search and rescue helicopter crews
23/12/2022
UK Search and Rescue Helicopter crew rescued 872 people and assisted another 327 from April to September 2022, new figures show.
There were 1,598 civilian SARH UK operations and the busiest base was Prestwick in Scotland, which responded to 237 call-outs. This is slightly down on the 1643 incidents from April-September 2021, but up from 1322 in 2020.
More than half (52%) of the incidents involved rescue or recovery, according to the data from the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre.
Coastal-based taskings accounted for 39% of all call-outs, with 16% being maritime incidents.
A total of 437 (27%) missions took place in beach and cliff areas, 262 (16%) in mountainous areas, 225 (14%) were to vessels in distress, and 674 (42%) were “other” incidents.
The busiest months were July (320 missions) and August (307), which follow the usual seasonal trend.
The image by Dave Conner is from Wikipedia.
