The Cape Town and Oudtshoorn Metro/AMS rescue helicopters have logged 13 and 7 sea rescue responses respectively over December alone. The Cape Town rescue helicopter logged a further 7 general rescue calls in the first week of January 2012; many of these were sea rescues.
Overall there was a noticeable increase in responses for emergencies as is commonly the scenario over the festive season. The Oudtshoorn emergency helicopters were placed strategically to ensure increased civilian coverage over the holiday period and over December the The Metro/AMS Oudtshoorn rescue helicopter conducted 47 emergency missions compared to 63 in Cape Town.
The Oudtshoorn Metro/AMS rescue helicopter responded to 2 incidents in Herolds Bay - one where a woman was rescued from a near drowning incident but later died in hospital, and another when a group of 3 youngsters had to be airlifted out of the water with the hoist on New Year’s day.
The AMS is the only civilian type operation in South Africa that has mountain and sea rescue capable helicopters fitted with hoist and cargo slings backed up by rescue specialists in mountain and sea rescues by jointly operating with the department of health and organisations like the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), Wilderness Search & Rescue (WSAR), Mountain Club of South Africa (MCSA), to mention a few.
The AMS operates a fleet of 16 emergency aircraft that span across 8 bases in the country.
Ashwin Krishna, National Operations Manager says AMS sees a growing need for aero-medical services as a support and access creating resource in the health sector.
"We are therefore hosting an international conference in March that will look into ways of helping the rest of Africa benefit from the South African model."
(Ilse Schoonraad)
- Oudtshoorn Courant
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