HMS Gannet achieves record number of Search and Rescue sorties

Historically, no helicopter Search and Rescue unit has achieved 400 call-outs in a year, but, illustrating the high tempo under which the Prestwick-based unit operates, they beat their record-breaking total of 382 in 2008 by 65 sorties, or an average of more than one a week.

Over the course of 2009 a total of 378 people have been helped out of whatever predicament they found themselves in.

HMS Gannet's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Debdash Bhattacharya, said:

"This is an extraordinary achievement. I am immensely proud of each and every individual who is a part of the close-knit team at HMS Gannet.

"From the aircrew to the engineers, weather forecasters, office staff, ground crews and support staff, absolutely everyone plays their part in ensuring that there is a Search and Rescue helicopter ready to respond 24-hours-a-day to whatever the call may be.

"It's a phenomenal sustained effort aimed at supporting the people of Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, who can feel a little safer in the knowledge that we are ready to help at a moment's notice."

Perhaps perfectly illustrating the relentless operational pressure at the unit, two of Gannet's aircrew have just passed 600 and 700 call-outs respectively.

During seven years in Search and Rescue, observer Lieutenant Commander Martin 'Florry' Ford has amassed 600 call-outs, a staggering 288 of which were with HMS Gannet in the last two years (138 in 2008 and 150 in 2009 - the latter equating to Lt Cdr Ford flying as part of one in every three call-outs).

He has been honoured with an Air Force Cross for his part in the rescue mission for the 2004 Boscastle floods, and the Queen's Commendation for Bravery in the Air as part of the crew involved in a dangerous rescue on Ben Nevis.

Meanwhile, Petty Officer Marcus 'Wiggy' Wigfull has notched up an extraordinary 700 call-outs in his 13-year Search and Rescue career.

He is a senior aircrewman with the unit and a fully qualified paramedic. And he too has been recognised for his courageous actions in the face of difficult conditions with the Queen's Commendation for Bravery in the Air after winching three people to safety from a stricken yacht in Ayrshire.

HMS Gannet covers an area of some 98,000 square miles (250,000 square kilometres) of northern England and Northern Ireland, as well as Scotland - from Edinburgh in the east to the Inner Hebrides in the west, and Ben Nevis in the north to the border. In England the area stretches from the border down to the Lake District. All of Northern Ireland is covered, as is a huge sea area of 200 miles (320km) out into the Atlantic off the Irish and Scottish shores.

Some of 2009's incidents included rescuing a 16-year-old girl who had fallen off her bicycle and plunged into a river torrent, guiding a stricken Cessna pilot to safety in a daring 'Top Gun-style' rescue, and plucking a 76-year-old woman to safety from flood waters which had engulfed her car.

These and other rescues resulted in the award of multiple operational honours for individuals within the unit.

Undoubtedly the strangest 'rescue' was way back in January 2009 when baby gannet 'Maximus' visited HMS Gannet to hitch a lift south on one of the unit's helicopters flying to Cornwall - the helicopter got a state-of-the-art refit and Maximus was given the chance of survival when he was introduced to his own kind in the warmer waters of the south coast.

And perhaps the saddest moment for the on call crew came when they retrieved the bodies of two teenage girls from the Clyde, who had both jumped from the Erskine Bridge.

The statistics show that some 20 per cent of the call-outs (a total of 89) were to medically evacuate seriously ill people from many of western Scotland's most isolated medical facilities to the specialist care of large hospitals, primarily in either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Another 41 per cent - or 184 - were for medical rescues, which could include anything from airlifting a critically injured road accident victim from the crash scene to hospital, to retrieving an injured climber from a remote ledge or from a mountain rescue team to a waiting ambulance or specialist hospital.

HMS Gannet is the only Royal Navy aviation asset north of Lincolnshire.