WEST coast air-sea helicopter rescue may be severely restricted during the worst winter months early next year, following the Government's decision to award a new contract to a Scottish company from January 1st.
Vital autohover equipment similar to that which the company, Bond Helicopters, had promised to fit on its medium-range Sikorsky 5-61, has not been fully tested, flown or certified by the Irish and British aviation authorities, informed industry sources have confirmed.
The Scottish company has been given until February 28th to fit the gear, but the Department of the Marine has already negotiated a penalty or fine in lieu which involves a 33 per cent reduction in the company's fee for every month, or proportion of, missed after that date.
The penalty clause was not part of the original tender issued by the Department, and was ruled out by officials when offered by one of the other bidders. However, a Department spokeswoman said yesterday it was "fully confident" the successful bidder would meet the deadline. The penalty was negotiated as "evidence of good faith and conviction" on the part of the Scottish company, she said.
Autohover is computer-assisted navigational equipment, which permits a helicopter to hold a fixed height over a vessel or body in poor visibility, at night or in heavy weather - such as that experienced over the last 24 hours off parts of the Irish coast. Longitude and latitude is fed into the computer, which calculates wind speed.
The gear, which was not initially on Irish Helicopters craft when it was first given the Shannon contract, is regarded now as essential in bad weather and costs over £1 million. For this reason, it was a specific stipulation in the Government tender.
Although Irish Helicopters had held the contract, for a fee of £5 million, for the past 5 1/2 years, it lost out to Bond Helicopters in the renewal bid on price grounds. The Department of the Marine said Bond Helicopters would save it an estimated £1.8 million in the service's cost, if extended over the same period.
It was agreed that Bond's backup helicopter would be based at Aberdeen, according to the new £3.2 million contract - although Aberdeen airport is closed at night. The Department has said Bond may now base its back-up at Shannon, and it is satisfied that Aberdeen has arrangements lord emergency conditions.
Irish Helicopters flew over 700 missions and rescued 489 people to the end of October, since it came on service at Shannon in July, 1991.
The company said yesterday it was "surprised" and "concerned" at the Department's decision to accept a penalty clause from Bond, as this was outside the original terms offered. It has submitted a series of queries about the tender to the Department, a spokesman said.
A third competitor for the contract renewal - a consortium involving British International Helicopters (BIH) and Westair - was ruled out when it said it could not meet the deadline for autohover. Although BIH/Westair offered a penalty clause in its tender, to cover a six-to-eight-week delay, its bid was rejected by the Department of the Marine, according to Mr Steve Stubbs, operations manager of BIH.
"We believe our bid may have been some percentage higher than that offered by Bond," Mr Stubbs said.
Autohover is now an integral part of Irish Helicopters current operation in Shannon, Mr Kenny added. The current certified model, the 400-450 series, is no longer manufactured, and is flown only by Bristow and Irish Helicopters, he said. The new 501 series has not been test-flown, he said.
The Department of the Marine said last night that performance reviews and high-level liaison were in place, and both it and the Irish Marine Emergency Service were confident Bond would deliver. A certification scheme was "in place" for approving the new equipment, she said.
Bond Helicopters was not available for comment.
