THE committee of Management of the Royal National Life-boat Institution began to give serious consideration to the use of helicopters for rescuing life at sea in 1948, when trials and demon- strations were carried out. Consider- able progress in the use and design of helicopters took place in the next seven years, and in 1955 a special sub- committee was set up to examine and advise on the whole question of the development and potentialities of the helicopter as an adjunct to the life-boat.

What was Recommended This committee recommended that the best method for promoting the work of rescuing life at sea was to develop co-operation with the Service bodies at present operating helicopters; in particular it was important for life- boat crews to have increased liaison with helicopter crews and for communica- tions between helicopters and life-boats to be improved. These recommen- dations are all being put into effect.

Helicopter-Life-boat Co-operation Helicopters in the United Kingdom, which can be used for air-sea rescue work, are operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, and in some places by the United States Air Forces, and there are now sufficient air stations equipped with helicopters to give almost complete coverage of the coast- line. If a life-boat honorary secretary considers that the help of a helicopter or any other aircraft is advisable, he asks the coastguard to request the necessary help from the appropriate air station. This help is most readily given and the existing arrangements work smoothly.

Co-operation between life-boats and helicopters has been increasing stead- ily, and there have been several in- stances of successful joint action, particularly in the landing of doctors and the rescuing of injured men.

The Helicopter's Advantages Experience has shown that the heli- copter can be a most useful adjunct to the life-boat. It is particularly use- ful where a casualty has to be reached quickly or is in shallow water on a sand bank or rocks, or in some other posi- tion inaccessible to a life-boat. Seri- ously wounded people can also be quickly transported by helicopters direct to hospitals; helicopters can also search an area more quickly than a life-boat can.

Helicopters' Limitations Helicopters, however, like all vessels or aircraft used for rescuing life at sea, have their shortcomings. As the Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Avia- tion, Mr. John Profumo, stated in the House of Commons on the 14th of March, 1956: "Helicopters are at present subject to certain limitations; that is to say, they cannot operate during the hours of darkness or in bad visibility or when the wind force is too strong." Equally helicopters cannot be used for towing vessels in distress in the manner in which life-boats are fre- quently used, and their operational endurance is restricted to a very few hours in the air.

The Royal National Life-boat Insti- tution does not operate its own heli- copter service. The cause for which the Institution exists is that of saving life at sea, but it has never attempted to have a monopoly of methods of rescue.

Throughout its history it has encour- aged and welcomed other methods of rescuing life at sea where they could be used with advantage. Life-boats have co-operated in the past with tugs, with coastal life-saving apparatus teams and with high-speed rescue launches. Although helicopters by themselves cannot supplant the need for life-boats, they do offer an oppor- tunity for further valuable co-opera- tion in the cause of saving life at sea.

Duplication of Effort Now that Service helicopters are available for air-sea rescue work it would be an unnecessary duplication of effort for the Institution to provide an additional helicopter service. To do so would not only be wasteful of money and material; it would also be unlikely to improve the excellent results now achieved in the existing methods of saving life at sea..