The star puts the gas, above all, tracing a long white and bubbling wake on the surface of the Trieux. The helicopter chooses this moment to approach the 11-meter boat. A man hangs from a cable under the left skid of the flying machine. The helicopter lines up from the rear, doors wide open on the port side.
An operator, helmet on his head and folded smoke visor, is standing on the skate, clinging with his left hand to the device, and guiding the winch cable with his right hand. The helicopter is now parallel to the stern of the speedboat, as if it were stationary. However, the two machines are in motion!
The pilot of the Squirrel is still getting closer, less than ten meters from the bridge, almost within reach, and brewing spray at any wind. The victim recovered in the water finally touches the aft deck, a rescuer picks it up. Mission successful, the helicopter takes off.
This impressive operation was only a training, but carried out under real conditions. Thursday, June 25, 2020, divers from the nautical gendarmerie brigade of Lézardrieux, near Paimpol (Côtes-d’Armor), worked with the aerial section of the Rennes gendarmerie (SAG) to revise their ranges.
“It is a winching exercise to prepare for the summer season. This is a special technical act, so you have to train “, explains Colonel Henri, commander of the West Gendarmerie Air Force group, who made the trip.
From Saturday July 11 to the weekend following August 15, one of the two SAG Rennes aircraft, the Squirrel, will be prepared and deployed, as every summer, on the Costa Rica coast, from Lannion airport, on alert every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. A guarantee of responsiveness and speed particularly.
And a particularly valuable tool for the gendarmes of the nautical brigade of Lézardrieux. “The brigade is made up of five personnel, including four divers-investigators-first-aiders”, explains chief warrant officer Stéphane Colorado, commander of the nautical gendarmerie brigade of Lézardrieux. “We have a nautical cap, mainly with boating controls and other activities, and the fishing industry, example monitoring of the regulations on scallops, from fish to the final consumer, including professional fishermen and sales locations. And we have a zonal “divers” competence, as technicians in underwater investigations. “
The training, like that of the morning of Thursday, June 25, is organized three or four times a year. On the eve of the summer season, that of June allows the gendarmes to review their ranges one last time.
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