Chief Officer Roger Dadd’s speech at the Thanksgiving and Re-Dedication Service for the Channel Islands Air Search Islander aircraft on 12 March 2005

“I have been asked to talk to you about the first 25 years of Air Search. When I thought about this and what I was going to say and how I could keep it brief to avoid boring most of you here who already know all about us, I realised there are some things which have changed in a quarter of a century and, perhaps surprisingly, some things which have not changed at all. 

When we started we had the Piper Aztec aeroplane that lived outside.  We worked from a small brick building, which was permanently damp; we had a VHF radio in the aeroplane - and nothing else that was particular to our needs.  We had a kettle and telephone in the hut, and no loo.  Gradually things developed.  We were able to put a radar in the nose of the aircraft just like the radar in this (pointing to Islander aircraft).  We fitted a flare chute so that we could drop our orange smoke-markers.  It is in this aeroplane - it is actually a piece of boiler flue. We were equipped with survival suits but we didn’t have enough money so we shared them and, as somebody who has been the second one in the suit on a warm day, I can tell you that it is quite an anti-social experience!  Later the hangar was built; this aeroplane came to us and it was eventually equipped with the thermal imaging - that little football under the nose - which cost a mere £200,000 if you please.  Sky Shout - so that we can talk to people in the water and tell them that the helicopter or the lifeboat will be with them in a short space of time.  We have an air droppable dinghy now, which we couldn’t have carried in the Aztec and we have the homers - those two black aerials on the top - none of it very graceful but that allows us to home onto people who have an emergency beacon or who are transmitting.  All of this has been possible because of the work of the Friends of Air Search led initially by John Torode in Guernsey, his colleagues in Alderney, Sark and Jersey and the work of the Trustees, often behind the scenes.  Everything that you see today has been a result of those efforts and has been donated, almost exclusively, by the communities of the Channel Islands.   

But what has not changed?  In twenty-five years it has remained the case that day or night, if the Harbourmaster or his colleagues call for the service, within thirty minutes this aeroplane and its predecessor would be ready to go, crew on board, fully briefed - and that is a pretty quick turnout time. 

During the quarter century that we have been working we have always worked with the lifeboats of the Channel Islands, the lifeboats from France sometimes, the lifeboats from the UK and the helicopters from France, in recent years the helicopter from Brecqhou, the fixed-wing aircraft from France, and the fixed wing aircraft from the UK. It’s sad that the Squadron Commander of Guernsey’s Own 201 Squadron can’t be with us today - he planned to be here - and it’s been a privilege to work with all of these other agencies which, between us, perhaps give the Channel Islands one of the best levels of coverage for search and rescue anywhere in the world. 

In some years we have been busy, in other years we have been quiet.  I can remember a few years ago we performed fourteen services in the year; this year to date we have already had ten calls for our service and we are not even into April.  

What has not changed for me and my crew members, both men and women - and I notice that the hymn was couched in terms of airMEN -  what has not changed is the feeling of satisfaction when you know that you have actually achieved a part in saving people’s lives.  The atmosphere in this aeroplane as it comes back to base, the atmosphere in the crew room, is something which needs to be felt, to be experienced, to understand; it is that which makes it so very worthwhile.  Equally I have to say there is that feeling of sadness when you come away from a job and you know that there is nothing more to be done.  I found it strange that within a week of attending a memorial service in Saint Michel du Valle, the Parish Church in the north of this Island, a service in memory of a Guernsey fisherman who lost his life in Sark - within a week I was out with the crew, as were others of the crew on further services, working our way round some fairly intense snow storms looking for the second time in a short space of time for two fishermen lost from Alderney.  I can only say to you that it is a sad business when you do that, but it is the times when you come back knowing you have saved a life that really matter.   

But if I may just take a moment to speak personally as one of the people, not the only one by any means, involved with setting up Air Search in the first place.  What I feel more than anything else is a sense of pride in the crew we have, who as a result of all the efforts of the fundraisers behind the scenes, and all the work that makes it possible, allow us to provide a service by a team which is as committed and as good humoured as they are - even when sometimes they find their boss just a little bit of a hard taskmaster.   

In twenty-five years time it will be somebody else speaking words like this - I hope I will be here.  I might even be wearing the same tie.  Thank you very much indeed.”