‘Thank you’ to the crew of G-MCGH, one of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Sikorsky S92 helicopters, based at Humberside Airport, for flying over to Ribblehead, on Sunday.
All members of search and rescue teams must follow a basic training regime, before being allowed to work with the helicopters on a live incident. Anyone who has experienced anything like the howling gale required to lift the 7-tonne (unladen weight) aircraft will understand why! The first stage is to watch a series of on-line safety videos and answer test questions about them. Next comes a ‘walk-through’ inside the cabin, followed by being winched from the ground. Individual practice at working with the ‘high-line’ (used on the ground to help control the spin of a stretcher and winch-man, when being lifted from a difficult site, into the aircraft) takes more time and will be done over a longer period.
New team members walked through MCGH and also experienced being winched up a short distance. Two groups of CRO members effected casualty rescues from Force Gill (Whernside) and Hull Pot (Pen y ghent), before being flown back to Ribblehead.
Photographs: (L) One CRO member shows the pilot the wind, while others huddle down, out of it.
(R) The patient is carried to the aircraft.
Thanks again to the aircrew and their support crew at Humberside.