Bristow Group is lending its SAR-equippedhelicopters to the Louisiana flood relief efforts, performing numerous rescue missions over the weekend in cooperation with the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for Livingston Parish. Bristow teams based in Galliano and New Iberia deployed a SAR-equipped Leonardo AW139, Sikorsky S-76C++ and Bell 407 to provide relief to displaced residents and their pets, performing multiple hoist operations and EMS flights.
Equipment on Bristow’s SAR AW139 includes a 700-Mhz radio that allows for communication with the multiagency responders and mission management capabilities, an external rescue hoist system and critical-care medical equipment. The crew consists of two pilots, a hoist operator, a rescue swimmer and a flight paramedic.

Bristow crews retrieved people from flooded homes, small boats, levees and high ground surrounded by floodwaters. They supported emergency services at Gray Elementary School, which was being used as an emergency shelter, lowered water and supplies to people stranded by the floodwaters and conducted aerial reconnaissance of the area for local authorities and media. Emergency calls and SAR taskings were communicated to Bristow’s SAR dispatch, which were triaged for severity and relayed to rescue crews.