High seas rescue on UK exchange

By WGCDR Ernie Walsh

Aircraft captain FLTLT James Parton (fourth from right) and his crew after helping in the Atlantic rescue.

THE first Australian airborne electronics exchange officer to qualify as a RAF aircraft captain helped his British counterparts to mount an Atlantic Sea rescue off the coast of Scotland in early January.

Flight Lieutenant James Parton and his crew were called out at 5.30am on January 12, to assist a Spanish fishing vessel, Cibeles, which was experiencing difficulties in high seas about 200 nautical miles west of Scotland.

FLTLT Parton and his crew arrived on scene, found the Cibeles and determined it had lost propulsion and steerage. The crew were safe but needed to get the vessel to port.

FLTLT Parton’s crew located a passing merchant vessel, the Aegean Spirit, which diverted to assist the rescue, but was unable to remove crew members or tow the Cibeles due to the high seas.

FLTLT Parton kept his aircraft on station, but eventually needed to refuel, and headed to the nearest suitable airfield in order to return to the scene as soon as possible.

In this case, the nearest suitable airfield was Knock International Airport in the west of Ireland. After refuelling, FLTLT Parton returned to the Cibeles to provide assistance while a rescue helicopter from Stornoway in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides winched all but essential personnel from the ship.

The Cibeles was safely towed to port and FLTLT Parton’s crew returned to Kinloss at about 6pm that night. FLTLT Parton is a RAAF AE on exchange flying Nimrod MR2 maritime patrol aircraft with 120 Squadron at RAF Kinloss in northern Scotland.

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