Flotilla Conducts Search & Rescue with Coast Guard Air Station

By Jim Mayer

On Wednesday morning, May 23, under clear skies, the United States Coast Guard, with assistance from Flotilla 96, conducted search and rescue exercises 1,500 yards off Bonita Beach. A helicopter unit from the Coast Guard Air Station in Clearwater represented the Coast Guard, and two safety patrols, both under Coast Guard orders, represented the flotilla.

The Coast Guard's M-60 Jayhawk during simulated rescue
operations off Bonita Beach on May 23.

For thirty minutes, a 4-person crew, flying a Coast Guard medium-range recovery helicopter, demonstrated search and rescue (SAR) techniques simulating different types of swimmer deployments and survivor recoveries.  As stand-by vessel, Jim Mayer’s boat, Miss Molly, was positioned to act as a recovery vessel in case the helicopter, an MH-60J Jayhawk, experienced a mechanical failure.  

Use this link to access the news story, which includes video of rescue simulations and interviews with Larry Urbanek of Flotilla 96 and Jeff Kerner, commanding officer of Coast Guard Station Fort Myers Beach:

http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2012-05-23/Coast-Guard-conducts-drills-ahead-of-Memorial-Day-weekend.

Upon arrival, the helicopter crew executed a free fall deployment of the rescue swimmer, a common way to deploy a swimmer when a survivor must be recovered from the open sea. This was followed by a basket recovery. In short:

a.    Helicopter is positioned 10 to 15 feet above the water.

b.    Swimmer jumps in, swims to the survivor to assess the situation.

c.     Helicopter delivers a rescue basket.

d.    Swimmer places the survivor in the basket.

e.    Helicopter hoists the survivor to safety. 

After multiple recoveries, the helicopter crew executed direct recoveries.  In this rescue, the swimmer is hoisted directly to the survivor and both are then hoisted to the safety of the helicopter.

CWO4 Jeff Kerner, commander of Station Fort Myers
Beach, is interviewed by Channel 5 News.

The training exercise on Wednesday was typical of SAR training that employs the MH-60J, an aircraft measuring 17 feet high and 64 feet long.  There were four crew members: a pilot (LCDR David Marrama), a co-pilot (LT James West), a flight mechanic (AET1 Orlando Posada), and a swimmer (AST2 Sara Faulkner). 

Additionally, the MH-60J flew from Clearwater (100 nautical miles north) at a speed of 130 knots, and carried enough fuel for a 600 nautical mile roundtrip ----about six hours of sustained flight.  There was one distinction, however, on Wednesday morning:  the rescue swimmer is one of only four female rescue swimmers in the United States Coast Guard. 

There are nine MH-60J’s based at the Air Station in Clearwater.  In addition to search and rescue, the MH-60J’s are used for medevacs----emergency evacuation of sick and injured on the high sea----and law enforcement (they can be modified to carry weapons).