Almost 60 Marine Rescue NSW volunteers took part in a major multi-agency training exercise at Coffs Harbour over the weekend with vessel crews involved in a simulated on-water search and rescue exercise (SAREX) along with NSW Water Police, PolAir and NSW Air Ambulance while Marine Rescue NSW radio operators put their skills to the test with a desktop exercise scenario.
Marine Rescue NSW Northern Zone Commander Darren Hulm said volunteer crews and seven vessels from Marine Rescue Coffs Harbour, Woolgoolga, Nambucca, Trial Bay and Port Macquarie departed Coffs Harbour International Marina at 9am for the on-water exercise led by NSW Police Marine Area Command.
“Just like real-life situations, Marine Area Command tasks our crews for rescue response and today they coordinated a specific mission scenario involving a helicopter which had crashed in waters off Coffs Harbour,” Zone Commander Hulm said.
“Multi-agency exercise are really important because it gives us the opportunity to work with other agencies so that when we have a real-life situation everyone knows exactly what their role is and we do the best we possibly can to ensure that we’re saving lives on the water,” Zone Commander Hulm said.
NSW Police Marine Area Command Chief Inspector Anthony Brazzill said crews were tasked to locate persons in the water (manikins) and debris associated with the helicopter crash scenario.
“It was designed on a helicopter with four persons on board which had departed Coffs Harbour Airport at 4pm yesterday (Friday) afternoon destined for Ballina.
“It was identified later in the afternoon that the aircraft hadn’t arrived and police began conducting investigations.
“We were able to identify from flight tracker that the aircraft had descended rapidly in the vicinity of the Split Solitary Islands here off Coffs Harbor,” Chief Inspector Brazzill said.
The mission was to plan and execute an immediate search of the highest area of probability to locate and rescue survivors and recover all outstanding persons.
The search area outlined for Marine Rescue NSW crews spanned from just north of Coffs Harbour to south of Sawtell with crews using a variety of drift calculations to search an area of 40 square nautical miles.
Zone Commander Hulm said today’s exercise was an excellent opportunity for Marine Rescue NSW volunteers to work alongside partner agencies and put their skills to the test.
“All the vessels involved in the search are instructed by the on scene command vessel. They search north to south and then east to west on the communication from that on scene command vessel.
“Our crews were out on the water from 9am this morning after having a briefing with the Marine Area Command and our crews took about 45 minutes to locate the first target in the water.”
Zone Commander Hulm said all five manikins and debris were located within 2.5 hours.
“All our volunteers here today, not just the vessel crews but also the radio operators, the watch officers and the caterers have done a fantastic job. They have been locating targets as per the scenario, this is what they train for and our capability was put to the test this morning.
“We thank all our partner agencies for taking part in today’s exercise, we know the learnings will strengthen the operational response when we are tasked to an emergency,” Zone Commander Hulm said.
Chief Inspector Brazzill was pleased with today’s search response.
“The majority are all volunteers and they do a great job, without the volunteers from Marine Rescue NSW and Surf Life Saving we couldn’t do our job, we do it all the time, these guys don’t.
“That is what training is all about, we provided them a number of different search areas, the main one being the south area of Split Solitary Islands which was initially coordinated by our police vessel and then strategically we redeployed that vessel away and put the responsibility back onto Marine Rescue NSW,” Chief Inspector Brazzill said.
While the on-water exercise was taking place, 25 Marine Rescue NSW volunteer radio operators from the Woolgoolga, Coffs Harbour, Nambucca, Trial Bay, Port Macquarie, Camden Haven, Crowdy Harrington and Forster Tuncurry units honed their skills with a simulated desktop search and rescue exercise at the NSW RFS Fire Control Centre.
Marine Rescue NSW Zone Training Manager North Mitch Harvey said the Service’s radio operators play a crucial role in the success of search and rescue missions and today’s desktop exercise provided an excellent opportunity for volunteers to practice their skills
“Our radio operators were set a variety of scenarios including coordinating a response for a disabled yacht off Coffs Harbour.
“Radio is where the ocean meets the land and it is imperative our operators communicate effectively with our rescue vessels, the general public on the water and other emergency services,” Mr Harvey said.
Marine Rescue NSW is a volunteer based not-for-profit professional organisation dedicated to keeping boaters safe on the water and supporting local communities.
