Aviation records usually are established in clear weather, with pilot (and crew) and aircraft carefully primed for establishing the new mark. In addition, the U.S. Coast Guard-the smallest U.S. military service with the smallest air arm-rarely sets them.
But the Coast Guard did establish a record on 17 December, when HH-60J Jayhawk helicopters plucked 34 crewmen from a sinking passenger ship off the Virginia coast. With 30-foot-high seas and winds gusting to 75 knots, the 605-foot cruise ship Sea Breeze I was beginning to sink. On board was a crew of 34 men who were taking the Panamanian-registered ship from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Charleston, South Carolina, for repairs. There were no passengers on board.
Some 225 nautical miles off Cape Henry, Virginia, the Sea Breeze I suffered an engine failure and began shipping water. The ship quickly developed a list as she was lashed by heavy seas. An SOS was transmitted, and two HH-60Js were launched from the Coast Guard air station at Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Two Coast Guard HC-130H Hercules also launched to provide communications support.
The helicopters immediately encountered thunderstorms and fog. The first HH-60J to arrive over the ship found her listing to starboard some 15 and heaving in the waves. As the pilot, Lieutenant Dan Molthen, tried to steady the helicopter over the ship, Aviation Survival Technician First Class Darren Reeves, a rescue swimmer, was winched down to the deck of the Sea Breeze I.
On deck, Reeves found the crew-few of whom could speak English-screaming and trying to reach the rescue basket. Reeves kept the mob away from the basket as he counted off two men at a time and had them winched up to the helicopter. (The rescue basket, normally used to carry one person, has a 600pound capacity.) He took a knife from the belt of one crewman and tossed it overboard.
The helicopter tried to hover 30 feet above the ship but, according to copilot Lieutenant (junior grade) Craig Neubecker, "the winds were just kicking us like crazy."' He struggled to keep the aircraft between 15 and 50 feet above the heaving deck in the 50knot winds.
The "plan" was for each HH-60J to hover over the ship in succession and take aboard 17 survivors. The helicopters, carrying crews of four, have seats for six rescuees; double that number could be accommodated easily. Stuffing 17 men into each Jayhawk would be difficult, perhaps impossible.
Because of the precarious condition of the ship, however, the pilots of the two helicopters had decided that the first to take aboard crewmen would load as many as possible. Molthen kept telling Reeves to "send up two more." Finally, Reeves was told to ride the basket back up to the aircraft. Getting into the cabin was a problem: the helicopter had taken on 26 rescuees in addition to its four-man crew. Some rescuees were in pain and screaming from being crammed in so tightly.
This load of 30 men was an unquestioned record for the Sikorsky H-60, which is flown in a number of variants by the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, as well as by the Coast Guard, and by several other nations.
As the first helicopter cleared the scene, the second HH-60J, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Randy Watson, hovered over the ship. Again, a rescue swimmer, Aviation Survival Technician Third Class Bob Florisi, was winched down, and this aircraft quickly took aboard the remaining eight men from the Sea Breeze I. The ship's captain was the last rescuee to be winched up. The first helicopter had hovered over the ship for 30 minutes; the second for half that time.
The return flights, to Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, took two and a half hours, as the helicopters fought headwinds and storms. Both Jayhawks landed safely, unloading their grateful cargoes. The Coast Guard crews were exhausted and their aircraft's fuel tanks virtually empty. The helicopters were airborne, in deplorable weather conditions, for almost five hours.
Meanwhile, the 40-year-old Sea Breeze I slipped beneath the waves.