Helicopter Rescue
Air Sea Rescue. Over a fourteen year period between May 1962 and January 1975 I gradually built up a photo story on No 22 Squadron RAF Search and Rescue based at Thorney Island near Southampton. I was able to cover not only life at their base but many rescue missions, including fires at sea, injured seamen being transferred to hospital, the rescue of an injured keeper from Beachy Head lighthouse and – perhaps most dramatic of all – a party of stranded school children being plucked from the rising sea off Seaford Head in Sussex. 22 Squadron was reformed as a SAR Helicopter Squadron at Thorney Island within 19 Group on 15 February 1955. It was tasked with sea rescue and land search and rescue over a range of 60nm. It had an initial establishment of eight Whirlwind Mk 2s and was planned to operate from four detached Flights to provide SAR cover over the South and South East Coasts and Wales. The crew comprised a pilot, navigator and crewman. For further information on the history of the Squadron (from which the above notes were taken) to: http://www.22squadronassociation.org.uk/Hist5502.html
34 Photos
Helicopter Search and Rescue. Early use of thermal camera to find missing people. Demonstration photographed in 1972.
6 Photos
