25 January 2022
The Maritime Search & Rescue (SAR) Services of St Helena conducted an exercise to test the effectiveness of St Helena’s SAR capability on Monday, 17 January 2022.
The exercise ran between 3pm and 7pm and simulated a yacht sinking near St Helena with five people on-board.
The Maritime Central Alert Post (St Helena Radio) was required to receive and acknowledge a distress message, relay the message, and based on the information received, deploy Search and Rescue resources to the area. The exercise involved the St Helena Sea Rescue Service, St Helena Radio, Police Silver Command and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Cape Town. It was an opportunity for all parties involved to practice skills that have been developed over many months and to work with agencies that they wouldn’t normally work with on a daily basis.
Sea Rescue Manager, Simon Wade, commented:
“It was a very realistic scenario, given our regular visits from passing yachts. The Sea Rescue team found the exercise very useful as they were able to combine skills they have been taught over the last year, working through the different issues that arose during the exercise and working as a unit to achieve a common goal.”
Chief of Police, David Price, concluded:
“Exercises of this sort are vital in maintaining St Helena’s preparedness to respond to incidents at sea. It was really pleasing to see how all those involved worked together to successfully resolve the incident. I would also like to thank our colleagues in the MRCC in South Africa for their support to this exercise.”
#StHelena #ExerciseGreenDay #SeaRescue #AltogetherSafer
SHG
25 January 2022