Culdrose is England's busiest SAR base
Above:
A 771 Naval Air Squadron winchman on an exercise.
Picture: Leading Airman Photographer Dave Sterratt, Crown copyright
Search and Rescue (SAR) crews from Culdrose carry out missions across the south west of England and last year the base was ranked the busiest in England.
It is home to 771 Naval Air Squadron who are on-call 365-days-a-year in some of the most inhospitable weather conditions.
During 2013, the duty Sea King helicopter of 771 Naval Air Squadron was called out on 257 occasions. It moved 212 people, and had an average flying time of one hour 28 minutes while on a rescue, dealing with a high proportion of medical transfers between the Isles of Scilly and the mainland compared to other bases.
While Culdrose was the busiest SAR base in England in 2013, it was ranked third busiest in the UK behind her sister Royal Navy station HMS Gannet in Scotland, which had 329 call-outs. RAF Valley in north Wales came top with 335 call-outs.
