HMS Gannet helps with Rescue

As south and central Scotland was battered by wind and heavy rain, the on-call search and rescue team from HMS Gannet at Prestwick, rushed to the aid of a woman in Coldstream.

The 76-year-old woman’s car was cut off in deep water at a T-junction, and she had called the emergency services to raise the alarm.

Both the fire brigade and police attempted to access the woman’s location, but were unable to get close enough to help and the helicopter was called.

The woman had earlier been advised by the police to leave her car and to try to stand away from the water on higher ground.

When the helicopter arrived at the scene at around 1.45am, they discovered her clinging to a barbed wire fence thigh-deep in water.

Aircrewman and trained paramedic Petty Officer Marcus ‘Wiggy’ Wigfull winched down to go to the woman’s aid, while the helicopter crew battled to maintain a stable position in 45 knots of wind.

“For me it was actually quite a straightforward rescue,” explained Wiggy. “I put down two strops to lift her in the sitting position and just reassured her throughout. She was cold and wet, but otherwise in quite good spirits.

“It was the crew on the helicopter who had a tougher job, as the wind was very strong, we were in a hover only 20 feet or so from power lines and it was extremely dark.

“As soon as we had her on board, we headed off to have her checked out at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. She was very chatty on the way to the hospital and grateful for our help. And even went up to the cockpit to say thank you to the pilots.”

This call was the last of the night, which had seen three other taskings to areas as diverse as Keswick, Perth and Falkirk.

The calls began with the aircraft being scrambled at 5.30pm to assist a man trapped in his car in Keswick, but the aircraft was stood down en route.

The next scramble was at 9.30pm to assist in a search for a missing male, who was believed to have been washed away by a river in the Falkirk area. Along with the other emergency services on the ground, the Gannet crew spent around one and a half hours searching.

Never more than 50 metres from power lines and being buffeted by strong winds, the crew conducted the sweep of the area with night vision goggles, while attempting to maintain several prolonged hovers above the raging river.

Running low on fuel, the Sea King was forced to head to Edinburgh to refuel, leaving the other emergency services to continue the search, and the team later learned that the call appeared to have been a hoax.
 
Around midnight, after getting fuel, the crew tasked to the Perth area to search for a missing person. The person, however, was found by ground units whilst the aircraft was on scene.

Aircraft captain and pilot on the evening, Lieutenant George ‘Logie’ Baird, said: “It really was a busy night in arduous conditions with heavy rain and gale to severe gale force winds.

“But we did a good job and by the time we got back to base I definitely felt I had earned my cooked breakfast.”

The full duty crew was: Lieutenant George ‘Logie’ Baird (captain and pilot), Lieutenant Johnny Laidlaw (pilot), Lieutenant Angela Lewis (observer) and Petty Officer Marcus ‘Wiggy’ Wigfull (aircrewman).

By Royal Navy