12 days of Christmas and 27 missions for the Navy’s Search and Rescue fliers

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The foul weather which lashed Britain almost non-stop over the festive period led to the Royal Navy’s Search and Rescue helicopters being scrambled more than two dozen times.

In doing so the fliers from RNAS Culdrose in western Cornwall and HMS Gannet in Prestwick, near Ayr, saved or helped more than 20 fishermen, stranded walkers and medical cases.

Gannet’s duty cab heads off on a ‘shout’. Pictures: CPO Tam McDonald, FRPU North, and Maj Dave Fielder RM, RNAS Culdrose

THE foul weather which lashed Britain almost non-stop over the festive period led to the Royal Navy’s Search and Rescue helicopters being scrambled more than two dozen times.

In doing so the fliers from RNAS Culdrose in western Cornwall and HMS Gannet in Prestwick, near Ayr, saved or helped more than 20 fishermen, stranded walkers and medical cases.

Rescue 193, the duty Sea King of 771 Naval Air Squadron at Culdrose, lifted off the tarmac 17 times between Christmas Eve and January 6, helping seven people in the process.

Their colleagues at Prestwick were launched on ten occasions between Christmas Day and January 3. Fourteen people – and two dogs – have Gannet to thank for their efforts.

“The last few days of 2013 and the beginning of the New Year have been pretty busy for the duty crews at HMS Gannet,” said the unit’s Commanding Officer Lt Cdr Andy Drodge.

“With Scotland rarely escaping the grips of stormy weather, some of the flying conditions have been quite tricky. Between high winds lashing the coastal areas and more wintry conditions further inland, as well as persistent low cloud, our crews have been challenged, but have always risen to the challenge and completed the job successfully.”

A 771 helicopter scours the Cornish coast during a search for a missing person

Gannet’s longest job of the festive period was the search for two walkers lost on Beinn Ghlas, a 3,619-feet peak north of Loch Tay – that one was five hours and 50 minutes from start to finish.

The helicopter’s return to base was difficult in freezing temperatures with heavy snowfall. But, alongside the mountain rescue team, the duty crew got the walkers off the mountain safe and well, if a little chilly.

Rescues in the mountains are typically Gannet’s staple diet – but the winter storms have generally persuaded walkers and climbers to stay away from the peaks of western Scotland.

The domain of the Prestwick unit covers 98,000 square miles of Scotland, northern England, Northern Ireland and the North Atlantic.

The furthest flung Christmas call-out – a round trip of some 300 miles – was to a medical transfer from the island of Barra, transferring the patient to specialist care in Glasgow.

One of 771 NAS’ Sea Kings carries out a training sortie with Falmouth’s lifeboat

“Our shortest job was one which actually caught the headlines – rescuing three people, four children and two dogs from a flood bound farmhouse in Dumfriesshire, said Lt Cdr Drodge.

“This was just one hour and 20 minutes from start to finish – a really good job, very cleanly carried out by the crew involved; the rescue itself barely took ten minutes, the remaining time was transit from Prestwick and back again.

“The important thing was just to make sure that everyone was taken out of any imminent danger.”

Meanwhile in Cornwall, nine people have been assisted by the 771 rescuers – with the final days of Christmas/first days of 2014 proving to be particularly challenging thanks to the battering the West Country has taken in a succession of winter storms.

A French fisherman was winched off the Mon Briez south of Fowey on January 6 in conditions described by the squadron’s Lt Cdr Andy Watts as “a rescue at the limits of the aircraft and crew”.

The casualty was safely taken to hospital in Truro, while the previous day a burns victim had to be flown from Perranuthnoe, near Penzance, to Bristol. It took the Sea King three hours to return to base – normal flying time would be about an hour – as it battled 50kt headwinds and had to stop at Chivenor in north Devon to refuel.

Gannet’s helicopters lined up on the tarmac at Prestwick

That same day, January 5, a Spanish fisherman was safely lifted off his boat – despite a Sea State 7 which made for an extremely tricky winch – 150 miles off the Isles of Scilly.

As well as these successful missions, the Culdrose fliers had to abandon some sorties because of the weather, while the Sea King was called upon to help with the search for Guildford man Harry Swordy who went into the sea at Loe Bar in the small hours of New Year’s Day, and teenager Harry Martin, who vanished while photographing the effect of the storms in the Wembury area, just south of Plymouth, on January 3.

Despite an extensive search, no trace of Mr Martin has yet been found, but sadly Mr Swordy’s body was subsequently washed ashore.

“The rescue efforts put in by all the Royal Navy’s Search and Rescue assets over this period has been immense,” said Cdr Andy Rose, Commander Sea King Force.

“To pick just one example, 771 Squadron were involved in a very difficult rescue effort in extreme conditions 200 miles south-west of the Isles of Scilly on Christmas Eve that eventually saw a merchant vessel get the stricken sailors to safety; out of ten for the endeavour, I’d score them an 11.”

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