Standby!

by Lord, Brigadier-General Dick

• ISBN13: 9781920143442
• ISBN10: 1920143440
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-15
• Publisher: 30 Degrees South Pub Pty Ltd

Summary

In the air force no mission receives greater priority than the mission of mercy. When lives are at stake all resources available are dedicated to the task. Aircrew, ground crew, paramedics, doctors, mountaineers, navy divers, policemen and trained civilian volunteers are rapidly organized into a rescue team and dispatched with all haste to the disaster scene. This requires training, preparedness, dedication, determination and courage. Rescue missions are often flown in weather conditions that would normally ground all aircraft. Scenarios are as diverse as high-rise fires, mountain, flood and maritime rescues, to white-outs in the snows of Antarctica. Originally published in 1999 as Fire, Flood and Ice, this updated edition includes yet more spectacular South African Air Force (SAAF) search and rescue missions, both military and civilian. Included is the remarkable rescue of all 581 people from the ill-fated liner Oceanos, for which the author was mentioned in dispatches for his role as commander of the rescue operation. Also new are heart-warming accounts of SAAF rescues during the devastating floods of 2000 in Mozambique, which captured the world's attention.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 11
Author's notes	p. 14
Glossary	p. 17
Hot Extractions Limited	p. 24
Cazombo Enclave	p. 29
Tail rotor loss	p. 32
Eastern Cape floods	p. 33
Snow in the Drakensberg	p. 36
SAM-9 hit over Cuvelai	p. 38
Tzaneen	p. 40
A minor event: Durban visitor airlifted to safety	p. 44
A whale of a tale	p. 46
Stanislaw Kulzinski: 14 June 1995	p. 47
A busy weekend: 2 August 1991	p. 50
South Atlantic	p. 52
Demoina	p. 54
Calitzdorp	p. 59
Marienflüss: 17 October 1985	p. 60
An emergency with a difference	p. 63
Marion Island	p. 65
Augrabies Falls	p. 69
Low drag	p. 91
Macadamia 1	p. 92
Macadamia 2	p. 94
A radio mast	p. 96
A rubber tube	p. 98
Lions	p. 99
Axes	p. 100
Mines	p. 101
Vlammies	p. 103
The raging inferno	p. 105
Ambush	p. 107
When Jaco was a bicycle	p. 108
Snakebite	p. 111
Orange	p. 113
Apies	p. 114
Vaal	p. 115
600 knots	p. 116
Mozambique Channel	p. 119
Cram college	p. 122
Angolan Grand Prix	p. 125
Crocodiles	p. 126
G5s	p. 128
The Limpopo in flood	p. 129
Antarctic 1	p. 131
The Russian trawler	p. 134
Antarctic 2	p. 155
Naughtical confusion	p. 157
The day the rains came down	p. 158
A slap in the face with a cold fish	p. 161
The Mavinga Triangle	p. 163
Deep sea: 27 May 1993	p. 166
Antarctic 3	p. 168
The Wilderman	p. 171
Maritime mercy mission in the Bush War	p. 173
Pafuri	p. 175
Rocky Point	p. 177
Kariba	p. 179
Operation Moduler	p. 180
Baviaanspoort	p. 181
The Evdokia	p. 183
Taiwanese trawler	p. 186
The Wolf Mountains	p. 188
Kasikili Gorge	p. 190
Congo fever	p. 191
A premature baby	p. 192
Pelican 16	p. 193
KwaZulu-Natal blizzard-Drakensberg rescues: July 1996	p. 198
Oceanos tailhooker	p. 201
Rhino rescue	p. 225
The Far Right	p. 227
South Africa's first democratic election	p. 229
Operation Litchi	p. 231
Flypast	p. 235
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