Letters / Media standards
Where would we be without the media, particularly the Sun, to keep us informed about all the important stuff that is happening round about us?
In early April, five fishermen from Buckie registered fishing boat Onward had the crew of Oscar Charlie to thank for their lives after they were plucked from their life rafts with their boat blazing 50 miles north west of Stromness, Orkney. This rescue received scant coverage in the media.
On Christmas Day, in hurricane force winds Oscar Charlie was scrambled to pick up a critically ill person from the island of Yell. Wind conditions were so severe that the helicopter was flying backwards in some of the gusts of wind that a coastguard spokesman described as “beyond hurricane conditions” at times. Again this incident received scant coverage in the media.
Meanwhile, when a helicopter lands on a training run in a field in Stromness and is on the ground for around 80 seconds we all get to hear about it. What is the Sun for after all?
And we get rent a mouth politicians Tory MSP Mary Scanlon and Labour MSP Dave Stewart quoted at length speaking from a position of absolute ignorance.
If the helicopter crew does not train how are they to cope when the going gets tough and lives are at stake?
Time to support the pilot and crew, you never know when you might need them. There are discussion pages on Shetlink and Facebook where people are adding their support. There is an on-line petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-the-shetland-coastguards-pilots-job/ where you can sign up to support Oscar Charlie and the crew.
Brian Nugent
Burra
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