Search and Rescue
AW 139 SAR in Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea
The Mission brief is always to provide interfield personnel transport, however, search and resuce (SAR) is a secondary role. The contract commenced recently and is set to run for the next several years. The team is based out of HEVILIFT’s newest PNG location, HERD Base in the Gulf Provence
HEVILIFT’s SAR team in full kit.
Two AW 139’s have been utilised in this operation. This state of the art new generation aircraft is leading the medium multi-engine classification. With an outstanding power to weight ratio and benchmark safety design features, the 139 is built to tackle the most challenging multi-role operations all over the world.
HEVILIFT’s AW 139
The original crew for this operation consisted of six pilots, six engineers, four loadmasters and two base managers/air crewman. The team live and work at the HERD base location.
The HERD base team have faced numerous challenges. The base itself was constructed for this contract. The AW- 139 was a new addition to the fleet, this required the team to undergo new training and was a great opportunity for them to develop skills on the new generation aircraft. Given the remote location, the HEVILIFT crew needed to adapt to the challenging terrain, this required them to quickly devise a program to provide a proficient rescue capability. Any challenges that were faced, have been overcome quickly and professionally by the team.
SAR Configuration on HEVILIFT’s ATR 42.