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Twenty years ago today, Bill Deacon, one of the Bristow winchmen on our Coastguard contract lost his life after saving 10 others when the Green Lily foundered off the coast of Bressay.

Remembering Bill Deacon GM

CharlieOneSix wrote:Twenty years ago today, Bill Deacon, one of the Bristow winchmen on our Coastguard contract lost his life after saving 10 others when the Green Lily foundered off the coast of Bressay.

Remembering Bill Deacon GM

A brave man and now know to one more person than before His name and his very brave action and sacrifice will not be forgotten.

Caco

The only Galantry Medal that I witnessed being earned was a GM.

Fire Crew GM sale

Flight Report

It was also the only time I used a fire extinguisher in anger. In a rather futile effort I emptied a foam extinguisher on the fire. This was before the Fire Section turned up.

Once the spare starter cartridges went off, even the fire sections efforts were in vain. The a/c burned in half in the hanger. We were all shouting at Paddy Murphy to get out from under the a/c where he was on his back directing a foam hose up the rear hatch, not the bomb bay as in the citation. He did just seconds before the a/c collapsed in 2 parts.

One thing that proved interesting was the super swift manner in which the other a/c in the hanger were shifted out. This included a Canberra that was on jacks with its main wheels off. Getting the wheels on and the jacks down would have done credit to a F1 pit crew. An Anson and a couple of Chipmunks were virtually thrown out of danger.

What a sad series of events which led to his death. The ship's crew needed to take the thing more seriously as the coxswain said. Norman Leask must have been so frustrated and angry that they couldn't get in touch to warn Bill Deacon how critical the situation was. Do you know if they were using personal radios at that time CharlieOneSix, or the thing was just broken? It must have been worth a try for a three man lift though I can't remember the capacity of the S61 winch.
Ten men lived as a result of that rescue - I hope they were grateful for it.

FD2 - I really can't remember whether personal radios were used at that time. As for the weight capacity of the winch, 600lbs stick in my mind but I could easily be confusing that with the Wessex winch capacity or maybe I'm totally wrong. A wet three man lift could come close to that. Good to see that today's SAR machines have two winches although I don't think if they had been available to be fitted to Lima Charlie that it would have saved Bill's life when you realise the pounding he took against the Green Lily's hull. Bill was such a quiet unassuming guy - I only flew with him once but he was an excellent winchman.

H'mm - two winches... like two engines where it's not unknown forthe wrong one to be shut down. I wonder what procedures are in place to make sure the correct cable cutter is fired in an emergency situation......what a disaster a wrong selection would be!

It takes a special kind of courage to go out into such weather (both on the sea and in the air) I think. To lose a colleague in full sight and not be able to save him or help him must have been heart breaking.

The list of lost pilots in the US Coast guard alone (for example) is remarkable... (and this list doesn't even seem to be complete)...

http://www.check-six.com/lib/Coast_Guar ... alties.htm

One incident I read about sticks in my imagination for some reason. Apparently this guy was never found.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/02/nyreg ... clock.html

Caco