The situation whereby search and rescue helicopter pilots at three Coastguard units around the country could not fly because they were about to reach maximum permitted hours has been resolved.

Flying had ceased, and the RAF provided cover, when the pilots and their company, CHC Scotia realised that some pilots could have reached their maximum 2000 hours permitted under the EU's Working Time Directive for flight crew. But there was some uncertainty about how the duty hours, flying hours and standby hours should be calculated. BALPA, representing the pilots, and the company decided to err on the side of caution and stop flying until the matter had been resolved.

There are diffedrent ways of calculating these hours - the Working Time Directive laid out one method and the rules of the UK's Civil Aviation Authority laid out another. After talks between BALPA, the company and the Civil Aviation Authority a method of calculating the hours was agreed subject to the British Government introducing an amendment to the EU's Working Time Directive which would bring the Directive's calculations and the Civil Aviation Authority's calculations into line.