A man is woken up by a Sea King helicopter
As the "Segeberger Zeitung" reports, the Federal Police Air Force, based in Fuhlendorf near Bad Bramstedt in Schleswig-Holstein, will in future also be responsible for air rescue at sea. She takes over this task from the naval aviation command in Nordholz near Cuxhaven.
According to the report, two helicopters are to be converted and a new one of the Superpuman type will be purchased as part of the change. The investment volume is around 70 million euros and comes from the budget of the Federal Ministry of Transport.
The aged Sea King helicopters in the service of the German Armed Forces have been in discussion for some time because of their susceptibility to errors (YACHT 08/2015). In the future, synergies with the Federal Police's air fleet are intended to counteract such abuses. The supply of spare parts could be made easier in this way.
This reorganization of the air rescue is unlikely to be the last: In the long term, it is planned to subordinate this area to the emergency command in Cuxhaven.