FARNBOROUGH, England,
July 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE: LMT), today celebrated
35 years of partnership with the UK Maritime & Coastguard
Agency (MCA) and honored recent heroic lifesaving efforts of the
MCA. A recognition ceremony took place at the Farnborough
International Airshow.
The relationship between Sikorsky and the MCA dates back to 1983
when the MCA, through Her Majesty's Coastguard, began operating the
Sikorsky S-61 helicopter. The HM Coastguard fleet currently
includes 12 Sikorsky S-92® aircraft operating from Newquay, Caernarfon, Sumburgh, Stornoway,
Humberside and Inverness. Since April
2015, the MCA has utilized its S-92 fleet to conduct 4,500
search and rescue missions.
"Sikorsky is honored to be a part of the MCA's mission for the
past 35 years and is proud that the S-92 plays such a critical role
in providing a safe, efficient and reliable aircraft with which to
save lives," said Lockheed Martin's Rotary and Mission Systems
Executive Vice President Dale
Bennett. "With Sikorsky a part of Lockheed Martin, our focus
is to fully support all our commercial helicopter customers and
their missions."
"I am very proud of the partnership we have with Sikorsky which
has developed over the last 35 years," said Damien Oliver, MCA Aviation Programme Director.
"Sikorsky's aircraft offer the very best in search and rescue
capabilities, without which our crews across the UK could not
deliver a first-class search and rescue helicopter service, saving
the lives of those in difficulty at sea, in coastal areas and
inland throughout the UK."
The ceremony included honoring recent lifesaving efforts by the
HM Coastguard helicopter crew at Inverness. The Sikorsky Winged-S Rescue Award
is bestowed upon those who perform a lifesaving rescue with a
Sikorsky aircraft.
In June 2018, two boys were
winched to safety by a four-person HM Coastguard crew operating an
S-92 helicopter. The boys, ages 11 and 14, were swimming in the
ocean when the tide began to rise and they found themselves unable
to swim back to shore.
The boys were able to climb atop an offshore rock formation as
the rising tide threatened to submerge the rocks. A concerned
citizen spotted the boys and notified HM Coastguard.
The Inverness-based crew
responded within three minutes and winched the boys safely to the
nearby beach.
The Rescue Award is the 50th presented to the MCA by
Sikorsky.
For more information visit Sikorsky Commercial Systems &
Services.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a
global security and aerospace company that employs approximately
100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the
research, design, development, manufacture, integration and
sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
This year the company received three Edison Awards for
ground-breaking innovations in autonomy, satellite technology and
directed energy.
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SOURCE Lockheed Martin