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[Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre | Function]
[Assets | Incidents]
The Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre
The RAF Search and Rescue organisation was established formally in 1941 to aid all military aircrew in trouble over land or sea while training or on operations. By the end of World War II more than 8000 aircrew and 5000 civilians had been rescued. In the five decades since then more than 55,000 people have been rescued by the RAF, Royal Navy and HM Coastguard helicopter crews, and RAF Mountain Rescue Teams based around the UK.
Even today about 1500 people are assisted annually in more than 2000 incidents involving a helicopter or Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) being scrambled by the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre. From 1941 until the end of 1997 there were two ARCC, one at Plymouth and at Edinburgh.
The two were combined in 1997 at RAF Kinloss. All requests for assistance from the other emergency services throughout the United Kingdom - Police, Fire, Ambulance and Coastguard - are now handled at this single ARCC. Whilst our primary task is to assist military personnel the large majority of the tasks that we undertake involve civilians in trouble anywhere on the UK mainland and islands or at sea.
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