Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, has told the Government that its proposals to close the Portland search and rescue helicopter are “badly and seriously wrong.”
Speaking in an adjournment on the helicopter, Drax said that the Government’s costings were wrong, the flying times were wrong and, because Portland lies at the heart of the busiest area of the country for coastguard callouts, closing it would be “illogical.”
Drax said that the revised flight times showed how flawed the calculations by the Government were.
“The flying time from Culdrose to Portland is 48 to 54 minutes. If we add 15 minutes—the key user requirement to get the helicopter off the ground—we are looking at about 63 minutes. The flying time from Solent to Portland is between 21 and 25 minutes, plus the 15 minutes, which makes 36 minutes. The flying time from Chivenor to Portland is 37 minutes, plus the 15 minutes, which makes 52 minutes. That is on the basis that the air is still, conditions are perfect and no wind is blowing. As we all know, helicopters are not called out to rescue people unless something has happened—normally in stormy weather.”
“In the sea, a person has 10 minutes before they are unconscious—that is the maximum in current sea temperatures—and 30 minutes before their core temperature drops and they are dead. Not one of the proposed helicopter bases would meet that time.”
Returning to a point he has emphasised continuously over the past year, Drax said that no matter how modern and fast a new helicopter was, it could not be in two places at once.
Referring to a letter received that morning from Transport Minister Stephen Hammond, Drax said that a table in the letter showed only five instances in the past three years when the Chivenor, Solent and Portland helicopters were tasked concurrently.
In fact, said Drax, he had documented evidence that, “in the past 14 months, the Portland helicopter responded to 21 incidents at the same time as the Solent helicopter.”
“Something is seriously wrong and I urge Ministers to look at the modeling, which I believe is fatally flawed. Someone, somewhere has got their maths wrong.”
Drax poured scorn on claims in the same letter that the Transport Select Committee’s concerns that there would be “increased fatalities” did not mean lives would undoubtedly be lost. “The under secretary took the view that that was entirely different from saying that lives would be lost. I have to disagree,” said Drax.