SWIFT AID

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 156, 17 September 1941, Page 2

SWIFT AID

AIRMEN WHO CRASH IN SEA GOOD CHANCE OF RESCUE When a British or Nazi airman crashes ,j.nto sea somewhere around England, he has a good chance of being picked up even though none but an old lady in her garden or a policeman on traffic dutj 7 at village crossroads should see him falL

A network of information in which every member of the public knows his part has been devised by a new official organisation known as the Directorate of Air and Sea Rescue Services. Controlled by the Air Ministry and the Admiralty, the directorate: aims at co-ordinating and improving the R.A.F. naval arm rescue service which has already

saved hundreds, of airmen off Britain's shores. Any one seeing a plane crash has only to telephone the nearest police Station and the Avhole machinery is set in motion. The; victims, whatever their nationality, may well be receiving expert care in a hospital bed within an hour. All sujh calls to the police are immediately telephoned to the nearest aerodrome. Special rescue aircraft are straigthway launched with all necessary equqipment and medical supplies. Rescue launches simultaneously take off from the nearest coastal station and both ships ami planes are guided to the crashed plane by radio communication with each other and the mainland. The . rescue launches are sixtythree feet long with a top speed of 40 miles per hour, a cruising speed of 32 miles per hour, and an endurdance of 12 hours (sufficient to cover about 500 miles). They cany large nets which are trailed over the gunwale at the scene of disaster to help exhausted and injured men climb aboard. They are equipped, too, with lifebelts, first aid outfits, bunks for the wounded, and emergency provisions' wrapped in waterproof bags..