Sea Rescue Helicopter Unit training off Granger Bay

6 April 2011: the NSRI Sea Rescue helicopter Unit (SRHU) conducted a training exercise off Granger Bay with the South African Air Force 22sqn Super Lynx and CPUT maritime survival center.The objective of the training was to simulate the recovery of casualties from enclosed life boats. The Survival Center kindly made their training lifeboats available to NSRI to conduct the exercise.The exercise consisted of 4 separate sorties in order to give all the crew the opportunity to train. Due to the size and design of the lifeboats, it was deemed safer to recover survivors directly out of the water. A rescue swimmer is first lowered into the water, swims up to the lifeboat and recovers one survivor out of the water. The exercise is repeated twice for each sortie until the helicopter is full and then offloads the 'survivors' on dry land.