Episode 3 Helicopter Rescue

The mountains and coastline of Wales.

Both beautiful and treacherous.

PILOT: That's all copied. 122 approaching this time.

Wales has the busiest RAF search and rescue operation in Britain.

Hundreds of people are saved every year by the iconic yellow Sea King helicopters.

In this series, we follow the real life rescue stories

from mountainside to hospital bed side.

SHOUTS

Our cameras have been allowed behind-the-scenes access

to the two RAF flights serving Wales.

Never before has the Force been under such a spotlight

with a royal co-pilot serving within its ranks.

This is the story of the men and women who work with Prince William

365 days a year, 24/7.

This time on helicopter rescue -

Rescue 122 face an old enemy in the mountains of Snowdonia.

Bad weather puts a rescue in danger.

You can see on the nose where the climbers are coming down.

It's the biggest maritime disaster to hit Wales in over 20 years.

Rescue 169 search for five missing people lost at sea.

And there's a new recruit for the Search and Rescue Force.

Foxy the Belgian Shepherd tries to earn her wings.

Winter has arrived in Wales.

Conditions up in the mountains are treacherous.

And all around the coast, violent seas batter the coastline.

But against all the elements, some determined souls still venture out.

PHONE RINGS

Valley? OK, standby.

C Flight get a callout to a cargo ship off the North Wales coast.

It's a crew member with a severely injured hand.

Crew member. Injured hand, Yeah?

It's a 600 foot vessel we believe is laden with containers at the moment.

Winchman Ed Griffiths has just come on duty.

We've just had a call of somebody with a severe hand injury

on a vessel that's in Liverpool Bay.

That's all we've got for now,

so it could be anything from he's chipped his fingernail

to his hand's come off. We'll have a look when we get there.

Rescue 122 are deployed.

They've received a cry for help from the captain of a large cargo vessel

called Independent Pursuit sailing from Liverpool docks

along the North East Wales coast.

The radar operator today is C-Flight boss, Squadron Leader Spike Wright.

He receives more information on the casualty

from the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre in Scotland.

RADIO: 'It's a 43-year-old male.

'Broken left hand.'

On the horizon, Rescue 122 spot their target.

I can tell you that is Independent Pursuit

just left off the nose. Distance, close.

The cargo ship, Independent Pursuit, is travelling at a steady speed of ten knots.

The Sea King will have to winch Ed down to the deck on the move.

Winching out. Steady. Good position. Happy.

But as Ed is lowered down, gusts of wind hit him hard.

Pilot Dave Prochera Best and co-pilot Ayla Holdom

must act fast to keep up with the moving vessel.

They have to contend with 40mph gusts of wind

to get Ed safely on deck.

Steady. Slight swing. Steady.

Steady.

Steady. On the deck. Steady.

Empty hook. Winching in.

With Ed attending to the casualty, radar operator Spike Wright

considers extra precautions for the winch back up.

We need to think about highline, I think.

I'm going to get it ready with that swing we developed

with the vacuum the pitch housing causes for the winchman.

I don't want to do that again. I'm preparing the highline for that.

Spike is attaching a 150 foot piece of nylon rope onto the winch hook.

This highline will steady Ed and the casualty as they're hoisted back up to the Sea King.

Starting to lower the highline.

Steady. Highline now swinging towards the winchman. Steady.

One of the ship's crew will now hold the highline and act as an anchor

to stop Ed and the casualty from swinging in the wind.

Ready for lift. Winching in.

Clear the deck. Move left.

Reduce your speed.

Highline still attached.

With the help of the highline,

Ed and the casualty reach the safety of the Sea King.

Rafaelito de la Cruz from the Philippines

has fractured his hand after a hatch slammed shut on it.

Recovering the highline.

With the highline also safely retrieved, Ed is relieved to be back on board.

I'm just saying, boss, that's the windiest I've gone out the door in.

-Yeah, interesting, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

The crew fly the injured sailor to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool.

Ed escorts the grateful casualty to the waiting ambulance.

-All right, mate.

-Thank you, sir.

-You're going to be on telly!

And you as well.

Two hours after beginning their shift,

C Flight head back to RAF Valley.

Every year, around a quarter of all the callouts

to the RAF's Search and Rescue Force are to those in distress out at sea.

Wales, if you like, offers almost every challenge.

You have long range sea rescues

where you may be picking up any number of people,

up to 18 in the Sea King, and then bringing them back to land.

Then, you've got coastline and cliff rescues all around the Welsh coast.

It tends to be trickier in the winter

and if something happens at sea then the weather's rough

so we have yachts or cargo vessels in trouble - sinking, damaged, that sort of stuff.

Tends to get more serious in winter.

Might not be the easiest job

but I think it gives you a lot of job satisfaction.

The fact that I can help someone, potentially save their life,

for me is just brilliant.

At the Royal Marines Barracks in Chivenor,

Rachel serves as a winchwoman with 22 Squadron's A Flight.

I think I'm just classed as one of the boys, really.

It's quite funny sometimes when you get dressed up to go on a night out with some of the lads,

they're like, "Wow, you are a girl!" But no, it's just normal.

-I sit like that because it's better.

-It's just wrong!

As well as working together,

Rachel and radar operator Seaweed both live on base in the mess.

We live about seven or eight doors from each other.

We'll quite often cook for each other or watch a film together.

Being new to the job Rachel can turn to Seaweed as a friend and as a colleague.

When you have just done your initial training up at Valley

you don't have an awful lot of experience.

They generally put you with someone that is experienced as a radar operator.

They will tend to look after you for the jobs you go to

until you get a bit more experience.

It's five o'clock in the morning,

and Rachel and the rest of A Flight are scrambled

to one of the worst maritime disasters to hit Wales in over 20 years.

TV REPORT: 'This morning a distress call came in to Holyhead Coastguard

'at around two o'clock.

'Battered by a gale, the crew reported seeing a crack

'appear in the ship's hull.'

'A major search and rescue operation is underway

'for six merchant sailors missing in gale force conditions off the Lleyn Peninsula.'

In gale force winds, 10 miles west of Aberdaron

on the Lleyn Peninsula,

a cargo ship has sent a mayday saying its hull has broken

and they're sinking.

There are eight crew members on board.

A major search and rescue is launched.

Monitoring the situation are the RNLI lifeboat crew in Porthdinllaen.

TV REPORT: 'The Porthdinllaen lifeboat is still out

'in incredibly rough seas this afternoon.'

For most of this, rescue would have been four helicopters,

two helicopters came over from Ireland,

you've got four lifeboats, three tankers, two inshore lifeboats,

three offshore lifeboats.

The helicopter had launched from RAF Valley

and when it arrived it checked one life raft which was empty,

and fortunately the second life raft was checked

and there were two survivors in it.

They were airlifted and taken back to Valley.

TV REPORT: 'In high winds, an RAF winchman

'managed to get on board the life raft.

'Here, one of the survivors is winched to safety.'

Shortly after saving two of the Swanland crew,

the body of a third crew member was recovered from the sea.

Finding the other five means the search operation is still at full swing at RAF Valley.

I think it's mainly just tiring and I think visibility was bad

and the sea was quite bad, so...

They kept commenting on how hard it was

trying to search in that environment.

I've not seen anything at that scale not on the flight line.

We've had visiting aircraft.

We've had perhaps, five, six aircraft on the flight line including our training flights

but never anything operational like this. This was big.

Rescue 169 from Chivenor arrived to help with the search.

On board, winchwoman Rachel and radar operator Seaweed.

RADIO: 'Rescue 169, Holyhead Coastguard.'

This is 169. Go ahead.

'Rescue 169, Holyhead Coastguard.

'We have a revised search instructions for you. Are you ready to receive them? Over.'

With us all looking out, we have our own sectors.

We all know what we're looking for.

It's quite useful to see a bird in the water because we then know

how big a person's head is

so that allows you to re-focus for what you're looking for.

The sea's, obviously, vast.

We want to give the best we can to those people that are in the water.

We want to find them in the shortest time possible.

That improves their chances of survivability.

Ten hours after the mayday call, five men are still missing at sea.

The search for survivors is reaching a critical stage.

Oh! Right!

It's underneath all that foam.

Rachel has spotted a life raft in one of the coves at Bardsey Island.

I could see the top corner, just slightly orange.

From this height, it's impossible to say if there are any survivors on board.

Rachel is going to be winched down to check it out.

Before winching we're always concerned about safety.

We're worried about the white water,

and the foamy water that won't have much buoyancy for Rachel.

We make sure we keep the wires tight so she doesn't go under.

If anyone isn't happy, for example, Rachel's the person there

putting herself on the wire, putting herself at risk,

so if she's not happy to go on the wire,

she's more than within her rights to say, I don't think this is safe.

Despite the danger, the crew, including Rachel,

opt for the winchdown.

From the side door of the Sea King, Seaweed lowers her down.

The plan is to place Rachel on the rocks.

From there, she can shout to see if there's anybody inside the life raft.

Nobody calls back.

Rachel decides to go and have a closer look.

She tries to open the side of the raft.

But the conditions are too dangerous.

You can only hope that all the training you've had

will help you to find them

and, unfortunately, if they're not there, they're not going to be found.

We can only do the best we can and with all our eyes out

you would hope from doing the search planning, going up and down

we would see them.

Roger. Stand by.

I just don't know what else I could have done.

There isn't anything, Rach.

Rescue 169 searched the area for four and a half hours

but didn't come across any survivors.

The next day, the whole search operation was called off.

The five other seamen from the Swanland are still missing at sea.

At the end of the Second World War,

some 13,000 lives had been saved from the sea.

At the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire,

the RAF is commemorating 70 years of search and rescue work.

Among the veterans here today is Tom Scudamore, originally from Pontypridd.

He's the only surviving member of the first ever RAF Mountain Rescue team.

I must have brought 70 bodies down and perhaps about ten survivors.

During the war, Tom and the other volunteers

went up into the mountains of Snowdonia to save downed aircrew.

Now at 93, he is the last remaining survivor

of that pioneering rescue team.

In the mountains at night in the snow you could slip and fall.

It was very dangerous.

It was all well done. It was all worth doing.

As I say, I was just a medical officer not a rock climber

but it was a great feeling when you had survivors.

Today, a special memorial in Welsh slate commemorates

all those who have served with the Search and Rescue Force.

Those who have served over the last 70 years

are a group of exceptionally courageous, dedicated people

with obvious camaraderie and pride.

70 years on, and some things haven't changed.

That camaraderie is what keeps the Force going to this day.

The camaraderie is second to none around the Air Force.

All the guys, we live together for 24 hours,

we're in the bedrooms, here on the flight, we cook, we clean,

we're making each other cups of tea, every moment of every day.

We have to bounce each other, rub off each other really well.

We do that fantastically well.

Coming all random here!

We're a really close knit group and that really shows when we go out, and we do a job,

when you have to rely, when somebody else has got your life in their hands

when they're working that winch control, when the pilot's up against a cliff, you rely on them.

The friendships and the bonds you make on the ground

reflect in the air.

The Search and Rescue Force are on standby every day of the year.

And the shift on Christmas Day is always special.

Mothers and fathers will tend to be off for the Christmas Day.

Oh, look at that!

But families are more than welcome to come across

and have a bite to eat sometimes or bring presents in

and come and have a laugh with mum or dad, whoever's on shift.

LAUGHTER

Whatever the time of year,

C Flight's canine colleagues make themselves at home.

But today spaniel Eva is staying behind.

Her owner, winchman Neil Cooper, is going on a callout.

It's a bloke that's fallen.

He's fallen twice and is now stuck on a ledge.

He says he's uninjured so he's, em,

he can't get up and he can't get down apparently.

Ogwen Mountain Rescue Team have requested our assistance.

DOG WHIMPERS

Rescue 122 make their way to a cragfasted walker

in the Devil's Kitchen in the Glyder range.

The search for the stranded walker begins.

The local mountain rescue centre gives the crew more details about the survivor.

It's a male who's very close to the top of Glyder Fawr cliffs.

The grid reference he gave us is very inaccurate.

But he's wearing a bright orange top and he's looking out for you

and he's ex-army.

PILOT: Visual. Survivor is safe.

It doesn't take long for pilot Ally McDowell

to spot the ex-military man in his bright orange.

I'm happy to bring it back to hover from here, guys,

But he's well and truly stuck,

stranded on small ledge with a vast drop beneath him.

On such a vertical cliff face,

radar operator Spike has to work out how close they can get

to the casualty without the rotors hitting the cliff edge.

The main obstruction overhead will be that.

This side of him, you have that buttress that sticks vertically up.

-Yup.

-We'll probably have to go above that.

-Roger.

I'll look at the tip clearance of that and move us in in that position

and then we'll put you to his right side slightly low in case he does slip.

With the rotors clear of the overhanging rock face,

Rescue 122 are ready.

From the side door of the Sea King,

Spike guides winchman Neil down to the survivor.

Winching out. Steady.

On the monkey harness. Crew secure.

Steady. Good position, Alley.

Clearing the monkey harness.

Winching out.

Just a bit close to the winch when it contacts with the cliff face.

Cliff walker speed. Steady.

Steady.

Steady. In contact with the cliff face. Cliff walking.

On solid ground. Move forwards. Winch it forwards.

Steady. Winchman with the survivor.

Steady. Roger that.

Lift one. Clear of the rocks, two on.

Nice and gently. People on the way.

Left one. We'll clear the cliff face with a good distance.

50 foot of cable.

30 foot of cable.

Check.

Safely on board.

Scuffle back, scuffle back, scuffle back.

Safe on board and with no injuries, the crew decide to drop off

a rather embarrassed Trevor Wells at the local mountain rescue centre.

The plan was to go up Devil's Kitchen,

go across the Glyders and come back down again.

I kind of climbed myself into a bit of mischief.

I was already embarrassed about calling the mountain rescue

and then she called and said they're going to be quite a while

and seeing where you are, it's not going to be easy we're going to call in the RAF

which I was even more embarrassed about then.

I got myself into trouble.

I'm probably the first one to criticise something

when they get themselves into that kind of trouble. I should know better!

Rescue 122 arrive safely back at Valley

and Eva's wait for her owner, winchman Neil Cooper, is over.

But not all dogs get left behind.

Foxy is training to become an RAF Search and Rescue Dog.

It takes two years to train for rescue work.

Biffa is hoping that Foxy will qualify this year.

They massively cut down search times.

They can operate in the dark because they rely on scent not sight.

But being an RAF Search and Rescue dog, Foxy needs to earn her wings.

Today, Foxy needs to fly.

The dogs, from an early age, are trained to travel in helicopters.

They can, in extreme situations, be winched in and out of the helicopter as well.

There's a lot for them to take in, lots of smells of fuel and oil there's vibration,

the noise which is a different pitch to what we can hear.

But they seem to put up with it.

There's no guarantee that the dogs will all qualify.

You've got to have a love of dogs.

You own the dog and look after the dog and she will be my pet

until she's no longer around.

A dog this size would live anywhere between 10 and 14 years.

But for any member of the Search and Rescue Force,

there's one major enemy.

Rescue 122 from RAF Valley are on a callout to Snowdonia.

Today they will have to face a pilot's biggest fear - low cloud.

From a piloting point of view, the biggest thing for us is the cloud base.

If we're going into moisture or to cloud,

then there's a chance the aircraft could ice up.

We haven't got a very good icing clearance on the Sea King.

The option to go into the clouds is your last choice, your last option.

Once you go into icing, pretty much the aircraft is coming down if it ices up.

En route to Snowdon. Two hours 45 endurance.

Approximately ten minutes en route.

On Rescue 122's rear crew today are radar operator Nick Swannick and winchman Ed Griffiths.

Piloting the Sea King are Kate Simmonds and Captain Thomas Bunn.

-The weather on scene was light cloud.

-Roger.

They've been called to rescue an injured walker on the Pyg Track,

one of the main routes to the summit of Snowdon.

The ops room at RAF Valley calls in with more details about the casualty.

I've managed to get in touch with the informants on scene.

It's a 67-year-old male that's taken a 10-12 foot tumbling fall.

Initial loss of consciousness. Copy.

-Right. Carry on.

-There he is. One o'clock.

-Visual. OK.

I'm not going to make a pass straight away but we will get there.

They've found the casualty.

But Captain Thomas Bunn is worried about the encroaching low clouds.

It's definitely downdrafting guys. You can see on the nose where the clouds are coming down.

It's not fantastic conditions up there.

In such hazardous conditions, the Sea King can't get any closer to the casualty.

Winchman Ed suggests he's winched down onto the path

100 metres lower down than the casualty's location.

Do you want to have a go putting me on the path?

It's only 100 metres for me to walk up there.

Put me there with a bag.

He'll walk up with his kit rather than risk the Sea King's safety.

Fly away. Out the door.

Straight ahead. Steady.

Steady. Steady.

Steady. On the ground. Steady.

Empty hook.

Ed starts the 100 metre walk up to the casualty.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse.

The wind is increasing and the temperature is falling fast.

Rescue 122 leave Ed behind to go and pick up the local mountain rescue team.

They'll need their help to retrieve the casualty

before the weather conditions get any worse.

Pilot Kate receives a call over the radio from Ed at the scene.

It's bad news.

122 mobile, this is 122.

122, I've assessed the casualty.

It looks like an ankle graze and an Achilles injury, possibly.

He's splintered and all ready to go.

I'm not sure if you're able to get back here,

it feels a lot gustier and the cloud's in and out. Over.

The casualty has been stabilised by Ed

but they're totally surrounded by the low cloud.

The mountain rescue team are dropped off at the bottom of the path

and make their way to help carry the casualty down with Ed.

Pilot Kate gives an update on the rescue plan.

122, 122 mobile. Recording me? Over.

122 mobile. Yes, this is 122.

Looks like it will have to be a stretcher carrier down.

122. Understand and will get on with it. We're in cloud now.

Definitely getting darker.

The Sea King can't do anything but watch from afar.

The crew offers moral support to Ed

as he carries the stretcher down the mountain.

How far away are you, old chap?

I think we're about halfway actually. Not too bad.

-We're on the easy bit of the path so we should make up some time.

-OK.

Pilot Kate spots Ed and the team coming down the path.

They're actually just there, look, twelve o'clock now.

I won't climb any more, I'll just stay where we are now.

There's about 75 foot ground clearance.

Sorry, you'll have to continue. We can't get above you.

Radar operator Nick fires a flare to show Ed the nearest point

where they can safely winch him up,

clear from the danger posed by the low cloud.

-OK, we're coming.

-I'll come ahead.

-Yes.

Anyway, here's good and I'm ready for you.

-If you're happy, I'll winch out in anticipation.

-Yep. Happy.

We're just rigging up a highline.

-Fantastic.

-OK.

Everything's ready. Steady.

Further down.

An hour and a half after they first arrived at Snowdon,

the Mountain Rescue Team make their way back to base

and Ed can finally winch up his casualty.

Safe on board, the 67-year-old injured walker

is flown to Bangor's Ysbyty Gwynedd.

It's another successful rescue for Ed and the crew.

How was that Edlington?

I've often said that I don't do this job for the money.

The money just pays the bills for me.

It's absolutely fantastic.

The phone rings and you get that, you get that

sudden release of adrenalin through your body.

You're sort of preparing yourself for whatever it is.

You never know what you're going to be doing and never know what's coming next.

It's such a sense of wellbeing to help somebody.

You're helping them and essentially saving them.

Over 70,000 people have been saved during the past 70 years

by the RAF's Search and Rescue crews.

After his dramatic rescue in low cloud,

Peter Whitton left hospital a few hours after he was dropped off with an ankle injury.

I suspect I'm not walking tomorrow.

They were very professional.

Very good, absolutely brilliant. Did everything right.

Nothing but praise for them.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to say that.

For the men and women of the Search and Rescue Force the next job is only a callout away.

For some, like winchman Ed, the tour of duty will take them

to the remote Falklands Islands to serve with Prince William.

But wherever they are, from coast to mountains,

the iconic yellow Sea Kings will always be on stand by

to answer a cry for help.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd