HMS Gannet (RNAS Prestwick)

 military airbase, rescue service

HMS Gannet (RNAS Prestwick)

HMS Gannet SAR Flight is a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron based at RNAS Prestwick in Scotland. It operates three Sea King Mk5 helicopters in the military and civilian Search and Rescue (SAR) role across Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland. The crews cover an area from Ben Nevis in the north, the Isle of Man and the Lake District to the south, east to Edinburgh, the Firth of Forth and the Borders, west to Northern Ireland and extends 200 miles west of Ireland over the north Atlantic, giving an operational area of approx. 81,000 square miles.They are painted Red and Grey to aid visibility and to denote them as rescue assets. The aim is to have one ready to go at any time, with a second being available within a few hours should it be needed. This allows the third to be in deeper maintenance.

Personnel at the base consists of 15 officers, 11 ratings, 28 civil servants and 50 civilian staff. Gannet SAR also provides an important medical evacuation service to the many island communities and remote areas of Scotland. The crews feature regularly on the Channel 5 documentary series Highland Emergency. 2009 saw the unit break a new record as they were tasked to 447 call outs. This figure equates to 20% of the UK’s total military SAR call outs for 2009 making them, for the second year in succession, the busiest Search & Rescue base in the UK.

Also located at HMS Gannet is the National Sea Cadet Engineering Training Centre known as TS Fisgard, dedicated to providing marine engineering courses for cadets and adult instructors from units around the country. The first courses took place in 1973, with the name TS Fisgard adopted in 1998 and a new purpose-built centre opened in 2002.HMS Gannet has had a sea cadet presence since 1973, when the first engineering training courses were piloted. In 1998, the training centre celebrated its first 25 years in service, and is now considered to be the leading sea cadet engineering facility in the UK.

HMS Gannett Greensite,Tarbolton Road, Prestwick, Ayrshire, KA9 2R

www.royalnavy.mod.uk/The-Fleet/Air-Stations/RNAS-Culdro...
www.secretscotland.org.uk/index.php/Secrets/HMSGannet

Threat to move air-sea rescue operations to Glasgow Airport instead: SEE @ -
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8506806.stm

P.S. : From The Times - February 10, 2010
Search and rescue operations are to be withdrawn from Prestwick, the MoD has said. A total of 103 jobs will be transferred from HMS Gannet, the naval base at the Ayrshire airfield, to Glasgow Airport under a £6 billion private finance deal.