The public is urged to understand the work of Search and Rescue (S&R) as coordinators of collective efforts to rescue or track down missing boats at sea, but not their responsibility to respond instantly to sea tragedies.
That’s according to Bob Ridol of Search & Rescue Office.
Within the office of Solomon Islands Maritime Safety Administration (SIMSA) Search and Rescue is the only department that coordinates and facilitate plan and combined efforts with other relevant authorities to respond to tragic incidents at sea.
Search and Rescue Coordinator Mr Ridol revealed to the Solomon Star that people misunderstand the work of S&R by thinking that they are responsible to deploy rescue efforts immediately to reports of sea tragedies.
Mr. Ridol however, said that the role of S&R is only to coordinate search efforts by mapping out plans to carry out the search, but they have to rely on other authorities that take custody of patrol boats and choppers to implement the search plan.
“People repeatedly misunderstood our coordination work and accuse us for not deploying boats and helicopter instantly to reports of missing boats.”
He said S&R did not equip with speed craft or helicopter to carry out search when incidents are reported to their office.
He said they only play the vital role in mapping out a search plan on the areas they believed the boat might drift to and rely on maritime police for their patrol boats and a private company for their chopper to assist.
Mr. Ridol revealed that one hour hiring of the helicopter is very expensive and SIMSA did not have the financial resources to engage air-support.
Adding, they have to rely on Australia to provide air support during search.
And he also said that S&R also rely on fishing boats and other vessels out at sea to help them with the search and rescue efforts.
He said if an oncoming vessel is closer to the location of a sea tragedy then they have to inform the captain of the ship to be alert of any boat or missing person drifted at sea.
He said, they have did this to many incidents at sea which oncoming vessels attend to rescue people out in the ocean.
Mr. Ridol revealed that S&R department only has few staff that rotated on a 24 hours shift.
He further revealed that frustrations by many people who report sea incidents to their office did not understand the actual role of S&R which is merely a coordinator of search efforts, but they rely on other relevant authorities with the resource to carry out search.
He said they are working with Maritime Police, Aviation and other relevant authorities that have overlapping roles to establish a network that will facilitate efforts to respond timely on tragedies at sea.
By LYNNISSHA RUNA
