SEA SEARCH 10th June 1990 for the Banshee

SEA SEARCH 10th June 1990
This is a true account of an actual sea search undertaken by me when I was a SAR Dropmaster with the SES Qld.


The phone rang, demanding to be answered, it was 3am, it rang twice before I grabbed it. Helen mumbled in her half sleep, phones at night, should be banned.

They always seem to ring louder, and desperately.

On the other end Rhys said "pack some lunch, something to drink, and we'll be at your place in 10 minutes to pick you up".
Wide awake now, heart thumping faster than normal, adrenaline flowing, I fumbled around in the dark looking for my boots, my overalls and my call-out bag. I knew there wasn't much time to pack a fancy lunch, I took six frozen slices of bread, an apple, two large pieces of cheese and a water bottle filled from the tap. Just as I zipped the bag up I heard the truck outside.
What was it this time, we all thought, sitting in the truck like slabs of orange stone, not talking, all staring ahead but thinking. The truck turned at the airport entrance, parked and we followed the leader up into the briefing room.

The morning light was beginning to break, and in the distance you could see faint wisps of orange light glowing on the clouds. The briefing room was a frantic buzz, of voices, people scurrying here and there. We didn't have to wait too long to find out that we would be spending the next twelve hour at sea and at not more than 250 meters.
Gather round said the briefing officer, you're searching for a 15 meter yacht, white, with blue interior, two persons known to be aboard, a distress message was heard 48 hours ago and no further message has been heard. You will be flying in various aircraft, group into parties of three and register your names here. Aircraft will depart with five minute intervals, your aircrew have been briefed, thank you gentlemen.

When we looked around the briefing room, there were quite a few people, some we'd never seen before. Looking out from the briefing room we could see at least twenty aircraft, and nearly every one was a small business jet.

Must be a big one this time, someone of importance, we'd never seen so many biz jets parked at the airport. This was the first jet sea search we had carried out. Our crew had come from Sydney and after a quick brief by the pilot we took our seats.

The flight took an hour to reach the search area and then we searched a 10 kilometer square for two hours and returned. We didn't see anything. The Falcon was very comfortable, not the most suited search aircraft because some windows looked out onto the wings, but I did feel reasonably safe sitting there with two powerful jet engines pushing us through the sky.

As we taxied in the pilot said you'll be going out with the Department next.

I looked across to an Aero-commander, turbine engines, high wings and three people waiting nearby.

After introducing myself, I was given a special brief. This aircraft was more suited for sea searches. Attached to the tail were two life raft pods, and inside, an inflatable lift raft that could be dropped out the door. The aircraft was fitted with the latest electronic satellite navigation gear, and flown by very experienced pilots.

The brief did make me feel a little uneasy, I was the one that would deploy the raft if need be. I'd never done this type of life raft deployment before.

We climbed out and set course for our search area. After about half an hours flying a radio message came in telling us that the vessel in question had been sited; we would fly directly to it and stay there until help arrived. I calculated that we would be in the air for another six to seven hours, and it would take at least four hours to reach the site.

A multitude of thoughts pass through your mind while sitting, looking out the window, what if this thing goes down...will we have time to get out...would we, the searchers be rescued...how will the family get on...I didn't say goodbye to my son...when did I last change my will....

A change of engine noise, the nose goes down and wide awake we stare out the window, a blast in the earphones from the pilot...”we are in the area, keep a look out, report any sightings”. Although we had a report of the sighting we still had to relocate the vessel, and in a 5 meter swell at an altitude of 400 meters a 15 meter yacht is the size of a pin head. Remember too, it was blue inside with white hull. The sea was foaming, massive whitecaps and looked very uninviting. We passed though the zone three times before actually sighting the vessel. It had drifted from the last report and being the colours blue and white, it blended in very well with the sea. A flare had just settled on the water, and a fine pencil wisp of smoke could be seen emitting from the pencil dot red flare burning on the water. We circled for two hours not needing to jettison any of our life rafts...thank goodness, while we waited for a second ship to come along side the stricken vessel.

Air/sea search then allowed us to leave the area and return home. The actual pickup of the two sailors took place later that night and was a saga in it's own right.

We waited for the ship to get close enough to send a transfer vessel over and the women and the cat were taken on board the Taiwanese container ship.

The Australian Army had recently taken delivery of the new Black Hawke helicopters and it was calculated that with three crew and a full load of fuel they should be able to fly to the site, hover and rescue and fly back to Rockhampton. For safety a bladder of fuel was flown to Gannett Cay but not used. The two women on the stricken yacht also had a cat with them and it was rescued too.

The yacht was eventually rescued from the ocean and repaired and later that year given back to the American sailors.

It is amazing how many people have white boats with blue or green interiors. Ask them, how many have "V" sheets... They all have them, they're huge. To the searcher, they look as big as a match head from 300 meters and the only reason you see them is that they are different to the sea.

When you go to sea tell someone where you are going and stick to it, buy yourself a marine radio, make sure your safety gear is up to date, and when you launch your boat, bear a thought for those who may have to search for you, they have families too and are generally all State Emergency Service volunteers.