For a passenger ship in distress, current regulation stops after successful evacuation. Rescuing the evacuees is no-one's responsibility.

The current definition of mass rescue at sea is a situation in which rescue services are overwhelmed.* Whoever comes to the rescue can only help one or a few persons at a time. Getting people from lifeboats or life rafts to any place of safety is time consuming and exhausting even under benign conditions.

We propose that all ships carry lift-able life rafts for use in case of an evacuation, and that all suitable ships have a means to connect and lift these rafts filled with people to the safety on board.

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The goal of the FIRST Project is to make passenger ship catastrophes a thing of the past. We try to reach this goal by figuring out new ways to improve mass rescue, to test these ideas under realistic, harsh conditions, and by trying to convince the world that radical improvements are not only urgently needed, but also practically feasible and economically reasonable.

 

The FIRST Mass Rescue method illustrated

The first ship that comes to the scene circles the life rafts to calm the seas

The ship launches a Close Range Rescue Craft, CRRC, by means of a Drive Thru Cradle

The CRRC brings the crane wire to the raft while the ship maneuvers closer

The loaded raft is lifted to the safety on-board the ship. Up to 50 persons are rescued per lift.

 

This narrated movie shows our March 2012 test recovering a 39-pax Davit Launch Life Raft.

© 2013 SJÖRÄDDNINGSSÄLLSKAPET · PLUSGIRO: 900 500-0 · BANKGIRO: 900-5000

FIRST is  a project headed by the Swedish Sea Rescue Society, and is strictly non profit.

 

FIRST  •  Sjöräddningssällskapet

Talattagatan 24, 426 05 Västra Frölunda, Sweden

info@first-rescue.org  •  +46-77-579 00 90

2015-06-24