Royal Navy: HMS Prince of Wales helicopter crews fight fires and deal with aircraft crash in Norway
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Determined helicopter pilots fought fires and dealt with an aircraft crash in preparation for a major deployment.
Men and women from 815 Naval Air Squadron are embarked in a Norwegian warship as they prepare for HMS Prince of Wales’ Indo-Pacific deployment this Spring. Aircraft personnel will be working alongside allies within the UK Carrier Strike Group.
They will serve aboard HNoMS Roald Amundsen next month, with the Norwegian frigate supporting the Royal Navy flagship during the deployment. Roughly ten personnel will operate on a Wildcat helicopter stationed on the frigate, which will include air and ground crew.
In preparation, the “flight” team from RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset are spending several weeks in Norway for onshore and sea training aboard HNoMS Otto Sverup on the large scale Exercise Tamber Shield around the waters of Bergen. Before arriving on the vessel, the Royal Navy aviators were put through their paces at the Norwegian Navy’s safety centre to demonstrate that they could deal with emergencies at sea.
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They dealt with a mock helicopter crash - simulated by two smashed cars - using the Norwegian firefighting kit to tackle a simulated blaze. Engineer Connor Miller said the theoretical and practical training was “not too dissimilar from our own”. “My favourite part of the course was getting hands on with the rescue equipment and using it on the cars which gave me an appreciation of how difficult it is to gain access to a vehicle but also kept me thoroughly entertained throughout,” he added.
Fellow Air Engineering Technician Matt ‘Godders’ Godfrey was blown away by the training establishments in the fjords. “The Norwegian attitude to training and service makes them a formidable ally,” he added. “Their familiarity with our procedures, built over past Tamber Shield exercises, has meant a quick start to proceedings.”
The exercise involves several hundred British and Norwegian sailors, a clutch of Royal Navy P2000 fast patrol craft based in Portsmouth, Norwegian missile boats, the Sverdrup, tanker/support ship HNoMS Maud and several Wildcat helicopters. Other exercises include honing missile drills and torpedo runs while dealing with the bitterly cold temperatures in the fjords. These skills will be taken forward to HMS Prince of Wales’ deployment to Japan and elsewhere.