Editing Piper Alpha (section)

=== Aircraft ===
[[File:Westland WS-61 Sea King HAR3, UK - Air Force AN0769355.jpg|thumb|300x300px|An RAF search-and-rescue Westland WS-61 Sea King helicopter]]
A mayday launched by ''Lowland Cavalier'' at 22:01 was relayed to a [[rescue coordination centre]], which instructed [[RAF Kinloss]] station to scramble a [[Hawker Siddeley Nimrod]] maritime patrol aircraft. This was to be sent to the area to act as flying communications platform, handling the signals from helicopters and reporting them back. At 22:22 and 22:28 [[Westland Sea King|Sea King]] helicopters ''Rescue 137'' and ''Rescue 131'' took off from [[RAF Lossiemouth]] and [[RAF Boulmer]] respectively.{{sfnp|The Hon Lord Cullen|1990|loc=vol. 1, p. 190}} Shetland [[His Majesty's Coastguard|Coastguard]] helicopter ''Rescue 117'' took off at 22:45. Sea King ''Rescue 138'' left Lossiemouth at 22:51. The Nimrod took off from Kinloss at 22:55 using the designation ''Rescue 01''.{{sfnp|The Hon Lord Cullen|1990|loc=vol. 1, p. 169}}

When ''Rescue 01'' was still about {{Convert|80|miles|km|abbr=out}} from Piper, the aircraft crew radioed the rescue coordination centre that they could already see the fire.{{sfnp|McGinty|2009|p=126}} ''Rescue 01'' arrived at the scene at 23:27.{{sfnp|The Hon Lord Cullen|1990|loc=vol. 1, p. 44}} Three minutes later the first search-and-rescue helicopter, ''Rescue 137'', reached ''Tharos,'' followed by the arrival of ''Rescue 117'', ''Rescue 138'' and ''Rescue 131'' at 23:44, 23:48 and 23:53 hours respectively.{{sfnp|The Hon Lord Cullen|1990|loc=vol. 1, p. 171}} ''Tharos'' requested ''Rescue 138'' to evacuate 12 nonessential personnel to make room for incoming casualties. The helicopter transferred them to nearby ''Ocean Victory'', before returning with paramedics.<ref name=":13">{{Cite episode |title=Piper Alpha |series=Rescue |series-link=Rescue (British TV series) |network=[[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] |date=18 February 1990 |season=1 |number=7 |last=Berriff |first=Paul}}</ref>{{sfnp|Spouge|1999|loc=appendix III, p. 10}} The search-and-rescue helicopters made unsuccessful sweeps for survivors in the water and ferried injured survivors from rescue vessels to ''Tharos'' and to [[Aberdeen Royal Infirmary]].{{sfnp|Spouge|1999|loc=appendix III, p. 10}}

A civilian [[Sikorsky S-61]] of [[Bristow Helicopters]] carrying a medical emergency team arrived at the scene by 1:20 on 7 July.<ref name=":13" /> At 2:00 another helicopter landed on ''Tharos'' the Offshore Specialist Team from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, with a significant amount of medical equipment.{{sfnp|The Hon Lord Cullen|1990|loc=vol. 1, p. 171}} The last survivors were picked up by ''Rescue 138'' from ''Tharos'' at 7:25.<ref name=":13" /> By 8:15, 63 personnel (among whom one survivor who subsequently died and the surviving member of the crew of ''Sandhaven''<nowiki/>'s FRC) had been brought ashore. Aircraft were used to search the area of the platform until the afternoon hours.{{sfnp|The Hon Lord Cullen|1990|loc=vol. 1, p. 172}}