‘S.A.R. efficiency not under threat5

Press, 19 July 1988, Page 2

‘S.A.R. efficiency not under threat 5

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The deputy director of the Civil Aviation Division says search and rescue operational efficiency will not be affected if the coordination of major South Island searches is shifted from Christchurch to Wellington. The department is considering closing its search and resce co-ordination room at Christchurch Airport and haaving all major searches in New Zealand co-ordinated from a central base at Wellington. Mr Reg Roberts, deputy director of Civil Aviation, said no Canterbury jobs were at stake and neither would S.A.R. efficiency be affected. Both the Christchurch and Auckland search and rescue centres aae targeted for closing although Mr Roberts said no final decision had been mde. “At this stage it is still purely an option we are investigating.” Personnel and cost reasons were behind the proposal. Mr Roberts said the centralising idea stemmed from the transfer of certain Civil Aviation staff to the Airways Corporation last year. The corporation has now indicated it will be unable to provide search and rescue co-or-

dination staff after July 31. “Civil Aviation no longer has personnel in the field for the search and rescue co-ordination role, and so it is a question of either paying people or finding an alternative within our budget. “We have made an interim arrangement to employ, on an as-required basis, some of the corportion’s people who are taking early retirement from August. “But in the long term we are considering the possibility of shifting the co-ordintion of Class 3 searches — those involving missing aircraft and ships at sea — to a central base at Wellington. “At present we are paying to maintain three S.A.R. centres 24 hours a day where on may be sufficient. The iease for the room at Christchurch Airport is not cheap and Auckland’s S.A.R. centre is in the city where again we are paying premium costs,” Mr Roberts said.

Most Class 3 searches were conducted far from the co-ordination centre and efficiency would nnot be hampered if a search in Invercargill was coordinated from Wellington instead of Christchurch, he said.