Coast Guard search-and-rescue, law enforcement and homeland security air missions continue nearly as normal at Group/Air Station Port Angeles, despite an engine problem that plagues its three HH-65 “Dolphin” helicopters.
Throughout the nation, engine malfunctions on the orange workhorse copters have increased dramatically as engine-replacement efforts have fallen behind schedule, according to a government inspector general’s report.
The Coast Guard has 84 Dolphins, using them for missions that range from drug interdiction to environmental protection.
They lose power, typically two-thirds of one of their two engines, said the report prepared by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin.
“It’s a bad place to be if you’re hovering or trying to land on a ship,” Cmdr. Tom Ferris, operations officer in Port Angeles, said Monday.
However, the failures have struck the Port Angeles copters while they were cruising and had sufficient power to return home safely, he said
“We’ve been very lucky here,” Ferris said.
Missions curtailed
The Coast Guard command for the North Olympic Peninsula has curtailed training and public affairs functions, such as visiting area schools or participating in community festivals along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound.
These are what Ferris called “the sidebar missions, the missions we like to do.”
“But our core mission has not changed,” he said. “We’re pretty much acting as we always have.”
Nationwide, the Coast Guard has directed its helicopter pilots to minimize hovering and not to attempt medical evacuations from confined places like rooftop landing pads or areas that Ferris described as about the size of a baseball diamond.
“We’re much more cautious, just more studious, as to how we handle the aircraft,” Ferris said.
