Babcock oil and gas search and rescue team is boosting the service they offer men and women working offshore by replacing their traditional hard-wired helicopter intercom with a new wireless network.

Babcock SAR Operations Manager, Paul Walters said: “SAR is all about teamwork and effective communications is essential. This on-board network will help us provide a lifesaving service to men and women working in the North Sea for years to come. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in a SAR aircraft before. It blocks out noise and feels like we are just talking normally, with no wires to get in the way, whether we are in the pilot’s seat or hanging from a winch 50 feet below the aircraft .”

The new communications system extends to Doctors and Winchmen as they are lowered onto vessels or into the water to help people.

It can link up to eight helmets at the same time and has been formally accepted on both Babcock’s AW139 SAR helicopters based at Aberdeen.