National statistics

Search and rescue helicopter annual statistics: year ending March 2020

Published 22 July 2020

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/search-and-rescue-helicopter-annual-statistics-year-ending-march-2020/search-and-rescue-helicopter-annual-statistics-year-ending-march-2020

This release covers civilian search and rescue helicopter (SARH) operations in the UK, for all 10 current bases.

There were 2,380 civilian SARH taskings in the UK in the year ending March 2020. This is a 2% decrease compared to the year ending March 2019. The coronavirus pandemic is likely to have had a small impact on tasking figures for March 2020, however the number of taskings in the latest quarter were at a similarly low level to the same quarter in the previous year.

This chart shows the monthly trend of total number of civilian SARH taskings, April 2015 to March 2020.
This chart shows the monthly figures for SARH taskings by year and month, April 2017 to March 2020.
  • on average, SAR helicopters across the UK together responded to 7 taskings a day during the year ending March 2020
  • Newquay and Prestwick had the most taskings, responding to 298 and 338 taskings respectively
  • Stornoway and Humberside had the least taskings, responding to 140 and 180 taskings respectively
  • of all taskings, 52% (1,249) were rescues or recoveries. The Sumburgh base had the highest proportion of rescue and recovery taskings (87%) with the majority taking place at sea
  • SAR helicopter services supported and completed around 75% of all taskings during the year ending March 2020. A further 23% were terminated and 2% were diverted suspended or cancelled
  • 1,555 people were rescued and 186 assisted by SAR helicopters across all taskings during the year ending March 2020
  • land and coastal based taskings accounted for 50% and 34% of all taskings respectively, with 16% of taskings being maritime

Background information

In April 2015, the operational phase of a new contract to operate civilian search and rescue helicopter (SARH) services in the UK, managed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), commenced. These new arrangements took over from the previous mixture of military and coastguard SARH services.

The department is now responsible for the production of statistics on SARH activity. The data originates from the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre (ARCC) who are responsible for the co-ordination of a SAR helicopter and is provided to DfT by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

National Statistics

These statistics are now designated as National Statistics. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Code of Practice for Statistics plays an essential role in ensuring that statistics published by government inspire the public confidence through demonstrating trustworthiness and providing high-quality statistics.

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

We are trialling this compact HTML format for our search and rescue helicopter releases, and we would like to hear your comments. If you have any feedback on our use of this format, please email the SARH statistics team.

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