With the permission of the Portland MRCC Operations Room the Swanage Coastguard Team hope to deploy again late this afternoon / early evening to conduct a further search of the local coastline. Last night the team, who are all volunteers from the local area, searched from Ballard through to Durlston.
The search units work in teams of two or three and wear full protective gear, helmet, gloves, high vis’ waterproofs and reinforced boots etc. HM Coastguard has supplied high intensity LED torches and headlights for night searches and we have night vision capability if necessary. Everywhere is checked, beach huts - within/under/above, larger rubbish bins, under upturned boats, etc.
The search teams follow an ‘ops normal procedure’ whereby they sign in by VHF radio every 15 minutes with the search controller. The current location of each search team is given along details of the area searched and whether the operations are normal or otherwise. Teams are stood down for rest after 2 hours and then back out; on longer searches the team rotate in order that once a search team are tired and less effective they can be refreshed. Using this procedure a team can search effectively for a full day or more.
Our flank teams like St Albans are crucial and provide further support, typically in a full search scenario a team of 25 persons might deploy to the defined search area in about 30 minutes.
Key to an effective search is to remain safe, organised, methodical and thorough.
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