So, you want to be a helicopter rescue swimmer? You’ve seen the latest story about an offshore maritime rescue involving a helicopter or you’ve watched your local helicopter rescue team train. You might even live on the flightpath of your local search and rescue (SAR) helicopter and it’s been your dream to become a helicopter crewman ever since you can remember. But how do you get there, and what does it take to become a rescue swimmer?

I come from Cape Town in South Africa, where nearly everyone who’s involved in mountain or sea rescue is a volunteer. I used to be a volunteer helicopter rescue swimmer and instructor for the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) in South Africa, and being from a small country I always wondered what it would take to become a full-time helicopter rescue swimmer for one of the big SAR programs overseas. In search of information, I used to trawl the internet looking to find out how other organizations trained their rescue swimmers, their requirements and what it took to make it through the program.

My favorites were the videos of candidates going through the US Coast Guard’s (USCG) Aviation Survival Technician Aviation School, otherwise known as AST A-School. But my hunger for information on the industry didn’t stop there. In fact, it led to me an organization called EURORSA – European Rescue Swimmers Association, a European and global network of rescue swimmers, coming together to share their knowledge and experiences with other rescue swimmers, asking questions on techniques, procedures, equipment and even fitness. EURORSA opened a whole world of information and knowledge sharing for me, and I would regularly reach out and ask fellow members questions about their training processes. Now, as a board member of EUROSA, I’m on the receiving end of a lot of these questions, so I reached out to some of our contacts in Finland, Sweden, the UK, Ireland, Portugal, the US and Italy, to find out what their organisations look for when recruiting new rescue swimmer candidates. Of course, there are many more countries that can be looked at and questions that can be asked, but then this article would become a book!

Depending on the country, the SAR capability is provided by either the military or is contracted out to a civilian operator. In nations such as Italy, Finland and the US, maritime SAR is conducted by the military. Sami Ollia, a rescue swimmer for the Finnish Border Guard – Air Patrol Squadron, says that a rescue swimmer candidate needs to enlist in the Finnish Border Guard prior to beginning the internal recruitment process for the rescue swimmer program. The same pattern is followed in Italy, with the exception that potential candidates need to be under the age of 32 and must be qualified flight crew on either an Italian Coast Guard fixed- or rotary-wing asset, according to Fabio Pieretti, a rescue swimmer at the Italian Coast Guard.

In countries like the UK and Ireland, the maritime aviation SAR sector is contracted out to civilian companies such as Bristow Helicopters Ltd in the UK, which is engaged to provide helicopter SAR for Her Majesty’s Coast Guard (HMCG), and CHC Ireland, which is retained as the helicopter SAR provider for the Irish Coast Guard. Both employ civilians who are trained in the emergency medical field.

And then you have a smaller country like South Africa, where the military provides some of the aviation SAR capabilities, and volunteers such as the helicopter rescue swimmers from the NSRI, combined with medical crew from the state or private medical companies, provide the rescue crew capabilities.

So, how do you crack into the industry, a very small tight-knit community of some of the hardest working and selfless people in the world? Unfortunately, there is no easy entry. It’s not like there’s a school where you can just sign up to the program, like a college or even pilot training academy.

The conditions in which a rescue swimmer is expected to operate can be intense and a rescue swimmer’s physical health and fitness are vital to being able to handle what’s thrown at them. Each operator has a minimum fitness requirement, which is tested constantly throughout the course and then throughout the rescue swimmer’s career. Failing to meet the ongoing fitness requirement can see them being temporarily grounded or moved to another part of the operation. Therefore, fitness is an important part of the entry criteria. In the Italian Coast Guard, a potential rescue swimmer candidate is expected to pass a physical fitness test of a 400m run within 1min 15secs; a minimum of six pull-ups, swimming 100m front crawl in 1min 40secs; and carry a simulated injured casualty on their shoulders, weighing 75kg, for 200m within 1min 50secs.

At CHC Ireland, hopefuls are put through a six-stage assessment, where they are expected to pass each element in order to be considered for the program. The elements consist of: strength, fitness and swim test; water confidence test; medical scenario simulator; flight test (to assess if a person is comfortable flying in a helicopter); an interview; psychometric and psychological evaluation.

Training helicopter rescue swimmers

Training a rescue swimmer is an expensive business that requires medical instruction, countless hours of ground school, flight hours and pool training, and it doesn’t stop there. Positions usually only come around when another rescue swimmer hangs up their fins. And once you are trained, you’re required by aviation law to remain current and keep your skills sharp on a 90-day cycle.

On average, training a rescue swimmer can take between six and 12 months from start to flying ‘solo’. The reason for the broad timescale can be due to outsourced courses such as Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) and firefighting, and aircraft availability. This is as well as the fact that a rescue swimmer instructor may identify areas where a candidate needs improvement and then decides that they need to spend a bit more time on that skill before proceeding with the course.

Except for Bristow Helicopters in the UK and the USCG, both of which run a formal type of course at their in-house training centers, operations such as the Swedish Maritime Administration, CHC Ireland and the Finnish Border Guard conduct their programs on active SAR bases

In Portugal, ‘a rescue swimmer’s training depends on the availability of 751 Squadron, which is not an instructional squadron, on the availability of instructors, who are operational rescue swimmers and, finally, on the availability of helicopters', making the duration of the different courses variable, according to Luis Silva, a rescue swimmer instructor with 751 Squadron, Portuguese Air Force, which operates the AgustaWestland EH-101 Merlin in the SAR role.

Except for Bristow Helicopters in the UK and the USCG, both of which run a formal type of course at their in-house training centers, operations such as the Swedish Maritime Administration, CHC Ireland and the Finnish Border Guard conduct their programs on active SAR bases. Running schedules on an active SAR bases ‘allows the student conduct their training while also being exposed to normal SAR crew training flights and SAR missions as they come in,’ says Neville Murphey, Night Vision Imaging System (NVIS) Technical Crew Instructor for CHC Ireland.

In a country like South Africa, where the rescue swimmer program is run entirely by volunteers for volunteers, it can take up to two years to fully train a rescue swimmer and ensure that they are ready for the challenges that lie ahead. According to Robert Fine, Deputy Station Commander for the NSRI’s Airborne Sea Rescue Unit: “The main reason for this is due to the number of training flights we are provided with, either by the Air Force and or private rescue organizations, as well as the number of theory and practical pool training sessions the volunteer is able to attend after hours during this time, too.”

In most countries, technical crew members such as rescue swimmers are not regulated by their local aviation authorities in the way that pilots are, although rescue swimmer courses generally follow the same format from one country/operation to the next, with similar subjects, which are determined by operational needs. Only the UK CAA has published documentation regulating SAR technical crew members. The Helicopter Search and Rescue (SAR) in the UK National Approval Guidance CAP 999 is mentioned by Alec Aspden, Technical Crew Manager (TCM) for Bristow Helicopters Ltd: “The Bristow Winch Paramedic course (equivalent of rescue swimmer) comprises of a basic winch safety course using a static trainer, an ‘overland’ rescue phase using a synthetic Rescue Hoist Trainer (RHT), an overwater phase using a synthetic RHT and a ground school phase, all covering the subjects and skills as required by CAP 999. This is followed by an aircraft phase covering conversion to type.”

Most countries have formulated their courses based on legacy programs from former military operations, drawing from others’ expertise, previous experiences and knowledge sharing with those within the industry, tailoring this information to their particular operation’s specific requirements.

Swimming ability requirements for rescuers

By now you may be wondering about what type of swimming ability it takes to be a rescue swimmer. Do they need to be of the standard of a competitive swimmer?

No, one doesn’t, but one does need to become strong in the water and develop good water confidence. I listen to the podcast ‘The Real ResQ’, hosted by former USCG rescue swimmer, Jason Quinn. A common fact that I have noticed among his guests is that on many occasions, those wishing to become rescue swimmers were in fact not swimmers before they decided that they wanted to apply for their respective programs. They took swimming lessons or taught themselves to swim by going down to the local community pool. They had the drive and determination to go after their goal of becoming a rescue swimmer, and with that they became stronger, better swimmers and their water confidence improved with time.

Facing the elements takes stamina and skill

Rescue swimmers can often face environmental challenges such as extreme cold. In the far north of Finland, some 30 to 50 per cent of flights, missions, and training are conducted in the dark and in temperatures that are well below freezing in winter. Ollia says that while it is normal to wear drysuits in winter time, they also have to wear them during the summer, where ambient temperatures can reach as high as +20° centigrade, but the water temperature does not go above +15° centigrade, making working conditions for the rescue swimmer and crew incredibly tough and uncomfortable. This is where being physically fit plays a vital role in being able to function bodily and mentally in tough environments.

Medical care provided in-situ

A rescue swimmer is not only expected to swim and save a casualty, they are also expected to provide medical care to that person, too. Whether it be on a ship or mountainside, and not just on the scene, but providing continued medical care until the casualty is handed over to a waiting medical team. This is why so many operations nowadays require that those applying for their programs have some form of prior medical education and are registered with that country’s health professional’s council.

A rescue swimmer needs to have the capacity and capability to operate in all types of conditions. I’m sure you’ll have gathered by now that a rescue swimmer’s role is not just in the water, it is to respond to wherever they are needed. In some operations, the rescue swimmer is known as a winchman, winch paramedic or rescue man, because of the multi-faceted environment in which they are expected to perform. According to Aspden: “The UK has an extensive and varied coastline surrounded by the North and Irish Seas, along with several mountain ranges including areas that are classed as Alpine. A technical crew member (TCM) can be conducting rescues from vessels … miles out in the seas and then be re-tasked to an ice rescue in the mountains with temperatures well below zero centigrade and wind speeds in excess of 50kts.”

Working alone one moment and then as part of a team the next, depending on the situation, a rescue swimmer can be deployed to assist ground crew in the mountains and work alongside medical crew, or be deployed to a vessel pitching and rolling in rough seas to treat and package an injured seafarer with only the help of the ship’s crew who have minimal medical experience, all the while knowing that the helicopter has only so much fuel available before needing to leave the scene, sometimes with as little as 10 minutes to ‘bingo’. In other cases, being deployed to flood or mass-casualty situations, where the rescue swimmer must make the hard decision of which casualty to recover first, as USCG rescue swimmers had to do during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Being a quick thinker and problem solver, while having the ability to keep going during adversity, are key attributes of a good rescue swimmer.

Being a rescue swimmer takes determination, grit, and the ability to remain calm and level-headed in a stressful situation. It also takes certain mental attributes, which rear crew chiefs are constantly on the lookout for. Former USCG rescue swimmer and current instructor at SR3 Rescue Concepts, Jason Quinn, says it’s the ‘don’t quit’ mindset that’s closely monitored during rescue swimmer training. Aspden looks for ‘effective intelligence, high level of physical fitness, stamina and emotional resilience’ when considering winch paramedic candidates.

Knowing one’s limits is also an essential mental attribute to have, the ability to say no when a rescue swimmer realizes that the conditions are outside their physical and mental capabilities, so as not to put themselves or their crew in danger

Being uncomfortable, and being able to work under pressure, is something that is expected of a rescue swimmer. The mental attributes and capacity of a rescue swimmer candidate’s ability to work alone and as part of a team are taken into serious consideration during the selection process and throughout the training program, along with the candidate’s physical fitness abilities. Karl-Johan Jansson of the Swedish Maritime Administration Helicopter Unit adds that while physical fitness is important, they assess ‘the other factors’ during a physical fitness test. “We get a unique opportunity to see how the recruits act in a group of people, if they support others or if everything is just about themselves. We get to see how they react under pressure and when they're tired. If they get cranky. If they stop listening. If they stop thinking,” say Jansson. A person’s capacity to function under pressure is vital in the rescue swimmer role; a ‘deer in the headlights’ scenario is an incredibly dangerous place to be when working in a hostile environment such as helicopter SAR.

Knowing one’s limits is also an essential mental attribute to have, the ability to say no when a rescue swimmer realizes that the conditions are outside their physical and mental capabilities, so as not to put themselves or their crew in danger. “We might be someone else’s last hope and have to do all we can to help them, but if we hurt ourselves in that process, we won't be helping anyone but instead may make the situation even worse,” responds Jansson.

What’s next?

A rescue swimmer’s training does not stop once they finish the program. They have to keep training for the worst-case scenario. Each operation has flight and skill currencies, which are set out in their operations manuals with the specific currencies relating to the rescue swimmer’s skills set. On average, these currencies are expected to be maintained within a 90-day period; in addition to that, rescue swimmers need to keep up their physical fitness to meet the demands mentioned earlier. Some operators have in-house gyms for crews to use while on duty. They are also expected to maintain their medical qualifications through Continued Professional Development (CPD) as set out by the relevant health professionals council.

The common factor that runs through a helicopter rescue scenario is that if someone is in trouble, they are probably having the worst day of their life, and they are not in the best of locations either. While most helicopter programs vary in terms of their recruiting processes and training, they are all looking for the same kind of person in their future helicopter rescue swimmers. Someone with grit, who knows what they want, has the right mindset, the drive and determination to go after their goals, the ‘can do’ attitude of not wanting to give up in the face of adversity, yet knowing their own limits – and a willingness to make a person’s bad day a better day. Should you wish to follow the career path of a helicopter rescue swimmer, contact your local rescue organisation and find out what their requirements are.

With thanks to my sources:

Sami Ollila – Finnish Border Guard; Karl-Johann Jansson – Swedish Maritime Administration; Fabio Pieretti – Italian Coast Guard; Luis Silva – 751 Squadron, Portuguese Air Force; Robert Fine – National Sea Rescue Institute of South Africa; Alec Aspden – Bristow Helicopters Ltd; Neville Murphy – CHC Ireland; and Jason Quinn – SR3 Rescue Concepts.