I think the primary responsibility, certainly for first response, should be and is with the oil operators. To my understanding and from my visit to the North Sea, Norway, and the U.K., the oil operators are very much involved in first response.
With regard to the North Sea, you can approach an oil installation or a downed helicopter from both sides of the North Sea. There are various countries involved--Denmark, Norway, and the U.K. from the English, Scottish, and Shetlands sides--and there are helicopters on the installations, so you can get a quick convergence onto a disaster scene in the North Sea, more so than probably anywhere else in the world, and certainly more so than we can, because our helicopter can come from only one direction and we have no helicopters stationed offshore.
I see DND as being the backup. My understanding is that when things go wrong, it is DND out of the Halifax office in this region that has the primary responsibility to direct even the private SAR helicopter owned by the companies. As an example--