§ Mr. LlwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list all incidents in the past five years in which vessels have declared emergencies in the vicinity of the United Kingdom to which British military search and rescue helicopters were unable to respond due to inadequate range; what was the date, location and vessel's name in each case; and if he will indicate those incidents in which United States air force H-53 helicopters came to the aid of the vessel. [37532]
§ Mr. SoamesIt is for the Coastguard Agency to decide which SAR assets to deploy to incidents in the UK SAR region, and where refuelling facilities are available the Coastguard may request military SAR helicopter assistance at an incident outside the helicopter's normal base operating range. My Department does not keep detailed records of search and rescue incidents to which military helicopters did not respond. Our records show that a United States air force CH-53 helicopter assisted at a maritime incident in the UK SAR region on 21 August 1991 involving the recovery of a crewman from the weather ship Cumulus at 57°00N 020°00W.