Official Statistics

Search and rescue helicopter statistics: year ending March 2016

Civilian search and rescue helicopter activity statistics in the United Kingdom, from April 2015 to March 2016.

Documents

Search and rescue helicopter statistics: year ending March 2016 tables

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Details

Statistics on civilian search and rescue helicopter activity in the United Kingdom.

The operational phase of a new contract to provide civilian search and rescue helicopter (SARH) services in the United Kingdom commenced in April 2015. These new arrangements, managed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), have taken over from the previous mixture of military and coastguard SAR services.

The new arrangement means the Department for Transport (DfT) are now responsible for publishing official statistics on the civilian SARH services.

This is the third release in a new experimental statistics series covering these civilian SARH operations.

In April 2015 to March 2016:

  • there were 1,680 civilian SARH taskings
  • just over half of taskings were land-based
  • the Prestwick base was the busiest of the 11 bases during the latest quarter

Ministry of Defence (MOD) has historically published a national statistics series on military search and rescue helicopter activity. MOD continued to publish statistics on military activity until February 2016, in line with the broader transfer of SARH responsibilities from MOD to DfT. The MOD statistics are available.

Contact us:

Search and rescue helicopter statistics

Email SARH.stats@dft.gov.uk

Public enquiries 020 7944 4847

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

Published 25 May 2016