Accredited official statistics

Search and rescue helicopter bi-annual statistics: April to September 2022

Civilian search and rescue helicopter activity statistics in the United Kingdom, from April to September 2022.

Documents

Details

Statistics on civilian search and rescue helicopter (SARH) activity in the United Kingdom, based on details of taskings recorded by the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC).

During April to September 2022:

  • there were 1,598 civilian SARH taskings

  • Prestwick base was the busiest of the 10 bases, responding to 237 taskings

  • 52% of taskings involved rescue or recovery

  • land and coastal based taskings accounted for 44% and 39% of all taskings respectively, with 16% of taskings being maritime

  • there were 872 people rescued and 327 people assisted across all taskings

  • a total of 437 (27%) taskings took place in beach and, or cliff areas, 262 (16%) in mountainous areas, 225 (14%) tasked to vessels in distress, and 674 (42%) recorded as other

  • July and August were the months with the highest number of taskings, 320 and 307 respectively, consistent with the usual seasonal trend

Notes and guidance

Notes and definitions and guidance about the quality of these statistics is available.

Interactive dashboard

Explore the data via our interactive search and rescue helicopter statistics dashboard covering SARH taskings from April 2015 onwards.

Changes to these statistics

The department has reviewed the frequency of the search and rescue helicopter statistical series and will be reducing the frequency from 2 publications a year to 1 annual release in the summer. Based on the feedback received, this bi-annual statistics release for April to September 2022 will be the final bi-annual release.

This bi-annual release contains the record level statistics provided in table SARH0112 and an update to the interactive dashboard, which covers all the information usually presented in the other tables and does not provide an update for the maps document.

We welcome any feedback from users on the presentation of these statistics (including any negative impact of the reduced outputs from this biannual release).

Contact us

Search and rescue helicopter statistics

Email SARH.stats@dft.gov.uk

Public enquiries 020 7944 4847

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

Updates to this page

Published 7 December 2022

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