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favoriteRTE’s Rescue 115 Team visit NMCI for HUET Training
Our Head of Commercial Wet Course Development and Training, Ray Johnston recently appeared in the RTE show “Rescue 115” training the Irish Coast Guard Search and Rescue crew.
The Irish Coast Guards regularly simulate lifesaving exercises at the college in preparation for search and rescue operations in some of the most hostile sea environments in the world.
The show takes place over a number of months and is a six part series. It follows the rescue crews at Shannon Helicopter base, as they battle to save lives around the Irish coast.
This week’s episode follows the Irish Coast Guards latest recruit as he has his world turned upside down while completing the Helicopter Underwater Egress Safety Training with Emergency Breathing Systems in the SEFtec configurable HUET.
The show follows his training to become a Winchman in the Shannon Helicopter base which includes interviews, paramedic training and medical, physical and physiological tests. But before he can save lives he has to learn a drill he hopes he never has to use, which is learning how to react in the event of a helicopter ditching.
Click on the image below to watch the show.
Helicopters are top heavy and because of this when a helicopter crashes into the sea it may roll over upside down in the water and in preparation of this event all crew must be trained in exiting the helicopter safely in this unnatural situation.
The HUET training is what will save their lives in the unlikely event of a helicopter ditching, this special course is held here at the National Maritime College in a specially built tank in a replica helicopter cock pit.
Daithí Ó Cearbhalláin, Senior Crewman of Rescue 115 said “Every crew man, every pilot has to complete this every three years so all of crews rotate through this using this facility here.” “It’s a great exercise, absolutely invaluable it teaches the boys what they have to do in regard to action training that in a real emergency you would follow through with these drills without thinking”.
Commenting on his HUET experience, the delegate said “The most surprising thing for me was being inverted, being upside down and trying to get your brain to tell you to breathe when it is telling you not to breathe because you are under water”.
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