AIR-SEA RESCUE UNITS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 13, 2 April 1947, Page 6

AIR-SEA RESCUE UNITS

NORTH ATLANTIC FLOATING WEATHER STATIONS Air-sea rescue in the North Atlantic today is so well organised that aircraft could search an appropriate area in any part and reach survivors in less than nine and one-half hours. So says Rear Admiral Edward H. (Iceberg) Smith, Commander of the Eastern Area, United States Coast Guardfi in the initial issue of AirSea Safety, referring to the system of Rescue Co-ordination Centres which have been set up in the North Atlantic area at the instigation of the Provisional Intrenational Civil Aviation Organisation. Air-Sea Safety is a new magazine devoted to search and rescue problems of waterborne commerce on the Atlantic. Arctic Expert An Arctic expert, Admiral Smith commands'the Coast Guard .units involved in sea and air rescues on the North Atlantic. During the war, his knowledge of Arctic Waters' was utilised by the Navy in his assignment as Commander of the Greenland Patrol, since in wartime the Coast Guard operates under the Navy, rather than under the Treasury Department. In November, 1943, Admiral Smith became Commander of Task Force 24, United States Atlantic Fleet, in charge of Weather and Ice Patrol, with headquarters at Argentia, Newfoundland. In 1945, he was made Commander of the Third Coast Guard District, New York, later becoming Commander of the Eastern Area. The latter area includes a district ranging from Maine to Puerto Rico. “The present plans of PICAO are bound to receive moi'e and more approbation from aviators and seamen,” Admiral Smith stated. He explained that the search and rescue organisation of PICAO consists of 13 rescue co-ordination centres distributed strategically around the shores of the North Atlantic. These centres will operate a net of direc-tion-finding stations, search aircraft of three types equipped with droppable boats and survival gear, helicopters, and coastal rescue boats. .'"2 »~ .O' Minimum Set The location of bases, along with the number of type of aircraft which PICAO specifies as a minimum necessity for safety, is arranged with regard for the length of time that persons involved in ship or plane wreck can survive, according to Admiral Smith. Experience indicates that period to be very short in the North Atlantic, the Admiral added. In addition to the 13 shore establishments, a minimum of 13 floating weather stations is planned to be maintained by PICAO on the North Atlantic itself. These stations—four of which now are in operation astride the principal air routes—are vessels thoroughly equipped with modern meteorological instruments, electronic navigation gear, and trained technical personnel. The United States, which operates approximately 65 per cent, of transAtlantic aircraft, underwrites the expense of seven and one-half of these floating weather stations. Canada pays for one-half a station. On the European side, Great Britain is to maintain two vessels near the British Isles. Great Britain, Norway and Sweden are to share the cost of another. In addition, France will operate one vessel, and Belgium and the Netherlands another ship. Variety of Information Despite the number of nations involved in this Atlantic weather operation, the information will be furnished in an international code equally familiar to all. Observations will include surface and upper air temperatures, pressures and humidities, and the velocity and direction of winds from the sea surface up to 10 or 15 miles aloft. These reports are transmitted by radio to shore every three hours daily during normal conditions and oftener during bad conditions. On shore the reports are disseminated on a world-wide scale. The floating craft remain in relatively fixed -positions and hence are range stations which overseas aircraft may use exactly as domestic aircraft use the airways aids on land. Surface shipping equipped with radar and direction-finding equipment may “home” on these floating stations as check points and for other miscellaneous services which do not interfere with the primary duty of weather collection. According to Admiral Smith, the cost of the North Atlantic Weather

Service is approximately £350,000 per station per year. It is claimed by a British economist, however, that such service will save air line companies approximately twice its cost. As a case in point, the annual cost of the International Ice Petrol —operated by the United States Coast Guard but paid for proportionally by the nations whose vessels use the North Atlantic—costs £50,000 annually, according to Admiral Smith. Thus, a traveller by air over the Atlantic has the comforting assurance that his safety—both as to wather and survival—is one of the larger “items” in his ticket cost.