Text and photo: Major Michael Christiansen, SPAO DATG

Immediately all ongoing activities are dropped and the emergancy team prepares to receive a helicopter that has sent out a distress signal.

– A helicopter can be in distress in many ways. It can be on fire.

This hose can spread a layer of foam  over e.g. inflammable liquids.

The pilot, the navigator or the flight engineer may not be feeling quite well.

A turbine may have failed or the pilot just suspects a problem.

When we get the order over the loudspeakers we also get information about the type and the extent of the problem, says the maintainance officer of the ship, Lieutenant Commander Jakob Sand Pedersen.

He is team leader when THETIS has to handle a helicopter in distress.

A diver is ready to go into action in the  rubber dinghy if a helicopter in distress  fails to reach the ship.

The emergancy team consists of 12 men: the team leader, his assistant who is also engineering petty officer, one salvage-corps man on both port and starboard side, two fire fighters with ‘monsoon’ hoses as well as two fire fighters with foam hoses on the port side and two persons on the starboard side, each with a ten foot extension hose.

Monsoon hoses are used to shroud the salvage-corps man with haze when he or she approaches the helicopter.  This might be to pull an injured person out of the cabin.

The ten foot extension hoses are used to extinguish fire in the turbines (engines) of the helicopter.

The first task is to prepare the  equipment. Fire hoses must be pulled  out and nozzles must be found. Both  men and women are part of the team.

In each side of the fuselage there is a hole which the extension hoses fit into. The foam hoses are used to spread a layer of foam for example if liquids are on fire.

– After the alarm goes of, we gather as fast as we can. The first task is to prepare our equipment, before we get into fire-retardant suits. When the helicopter closes in, we take cover and wait for it to land on the deck. Then we move ahead on both sides of the helicopter hangar and immediately go into action when the rotor has stopped, Jakob Sand Pedersen explaines.

If there are no ill or injured persons on board, the crew can leave the helicopter themselves.

At the ships hospital the medical  assistants are waiting to handle any ill   and injured persons.

It is the task of the salvage-corps men to get ill or injured persons out of the cockpit. Next to the helicopter hangar medical assistants are ready to provide first aid before the crew member is moved to the ship’s hospital where a doctor and other medical assistants have prepared to receive him.

Two large foam canons are placed on top of the helicopter hangar. The use of these canons is controlled by the ships executive officer. And the ships rubber dinghy is prepared for action with a diver on board so that it can assist, if the helicopter fails to reach the ship.

– We are ready to solve all sorts of problems if a helicopter should get in trouble. There’s almost no situation we haven’t thought about and trained, Jakob Sand Pedersen explaines.

Once again the emergancy team did the job.