Mozambique Floods.

One of the main tasks of helicopter crews in South Africa is search & rescue. The recent floods in Southern Africa and especially Mozambique, made the world realise the SAAF's, great humanitarian efforts. Search & rescue has been part of the SAAF ever since the Sikorsky S-51 entered service in the 60's! However, back in 1996, Oryx helicopters from 17 and 19 sqdn flew rescue missions in Mozambique. The floods were on a smaller scale, but 1351 people were taken to safety. In 2000, the floods due to a cyclone, were the biggest in 30 years - reaching national disaster levels in a few days! The SAAF immediately answered the call for help and in a few hours, crews from Oryx and Bk117 helicopters were hoisting people to safety. The SAAF initially stood alone and rescue missions were flown around the clock, in extremely difficult circumstances. But, on 1 March 2000 a BK 117 flown by Captain C. Berlyn and his three man crew saved a young mother and her new born baby, from a tree in a vast mass of open water. Fortunately, the media had a positive effect and with visual material on the daring rescues (especially the young mother and her new born baby), broadcasted around the world, made other countries contribute to this large scale national disaster. In true SAAF professional pilot style, Capt. Berlyn and his crew didn't stick around for the glamour of media coverage, but almost immediately took off on another rescue mission.  (click here coverage of the Mozambique floods, by the BBC).

Acknowledgment: 

I would like to thank the flight crews (anonymous), who attended SAAF 80, for their assistance in writing this article. J. van Zyl (SADF Media) for arrangement of the photo shoot.

Further Reading:

A few photos of the BK 117 in flight can be found in the book "More than Game" by H. Potgieter. Apart from these the SAAF's, BK 117 has not been extensively covered by major aerospace publications.

• More than Game - H. Potgieter
• Ad Astra – Various
• Ad Astra - Special Edition SAAF 80

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