Episode 1 Helicopter Rescue

The mountains and coastline of Wales -

both beautiful and treacherous.

The iconic yellow Sea King helicopters rescue

hundreds of people every year.

In Wales, the RAF Search And Rescue Force is the busiest in Britain.

In this series, we follow real rescue stories -

from mountainside to hospital bedside.

Our cameras have unprecedented access to the lifesaving work

of the Sea King crews.

Even with a royal pilot in its ranks,

it's business as usual for RAF Search And Rescue.

This time on helicopter rescue -

Flight Lieutenant William Wales and his crew are scrambled.

A 15-year-old boy has fallen 20 feet

off a bridge in a disused quarry.

At the end of the day you're doing an extremely important job,

I think. It really focuses the mind when there's an actual real person who needs your help.

Sergeant Nick Jones shares

a unique point of view in the life of a winchman,

as he's called to a three-car collision on his first-ever shift.

We'll take a paramedic with us.

That just takes the pressure off us, then.

And it's high drama in the mountains as the Sea King

and its crew are put to the ultimate test.

We need to get to this casualty as soon as we can

because we are running out of fuel, and are pretty much on our limits of what we can achieve.

Snowdonia.

Its wild mountain peaks and old industrial slate quarries

make this a vast and challenging terrain to explore.

So when something goes wrong,

22-Squadron C-Flight at RAF Valley are scrambled.

Hi.

A call comes in.

Their target is to be up in the air in 15 minutes

but they're usually away in under eight.

Master Aircrewman Richard Taylor

knows they need to be prepared for whatever's in store.

When the job phone rings, when we're tasked with a Search And Rescue op,

you don't know what it's going to be

and it could be nice and simple or it could be...

job of the century, so to say,

and whoever's on shift - it could be the newest guy, it could be the most experienced.

On shift with winchman Rich T

today are co-pilot Flight Lieutenant Dan Loxton,

radar operator Sergeant Paul Bramley

and aircraft captain Flight Lieutenant William Wales.

Once the phone's gone off and everyone's calmed down and you've

got the crew together, as captain you kind of stand off a little bit.

You're trying to play out the entire rescue and the transit to the rescue

and back again in your mind and pick up any circumstances or problems

you can foresee and then try and fix them on the ground before you get airborne,

cos once you get airborne, things get a lot harder to communicate.

Rotors coming on, three, two, one...

The four-member crew are scrambled to a disused quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog.

There are two RAF Search And Rescue flights that patrol Wales.

The south is covered by the Royal Marines Barracks at Chivenor,

the north by RAF Valley and Rescue 122.

Today they've been called to Blaenau Ffestiniog

and the old slate quarry of Maenofferen.

Co-pilot Dan Loxton points out the route to the handling pilot,

Flight Lieutenant William Wales.

Right. Up here, Will. It's to the east side of Blaenau Ffestiniog, in the quarries there.

-I'll just follow the mark.

-Yeah.

Some of the hardest flying is in the mountains,

usually because the weather's poorer.

The winds are usually a lot, lot stronger, and like turbulence is a big factor for us.

But equally, the mountains of Snowdon, cos it's quite a small,

sort of, mountainous area, so we can get in and out rapidly

so we can be anywhere within a few minutes.

Co-pilot Dan Loxton updates the crew on the casualty.

It's a 15-year-old faller,

with bleeding from the rib area, in and out of consciousness,

-difficulty breathing.

-Whereabouts?

-In a quarry, at the moment.

Blaenau Ffestiniog, in the quarries there. Let's have a look.

Rescue 122 have reached the old quarry.

Should be at the right-hand side now, I'm suggesting. OK? Eyes down.

Now they need to find the casualty.

Point zero eight we're heading. Zero two four, so it's just behind this corner.

Spotting the young boy in all that slate is taking precious time and - critically - fuel.

Let's have a look on these quarries.

Could be in the shade somewhere on the right. I'll just go round, guys.

Keep your eyes out. I'll put everything on the right-hand side.

'The weather was really good which makes searching a lot easier.'

Having the sunshine out is great, but with the sunshine comes huge shadows

as well, and so if you're inside those shadows,

you can't be seen very easily.

It's in this vicinity here now. Over.

-So it's right here. That's the exact grid.

-Can't see anybody.

You have a grid which you fly to.

Cos the shape of the quarry changes, it could be as much as 10, 20,

100, one kilometre out.

The longer they search - the more valuable fuel they burn.

Kinloss Rescue, Kinloss Rescue, Rescue 122. Over.

-Guys, I'm going to follow...

-'Rescue 122? Go ahead.'

-There we go. Er, yeah, this is Rescue 122.

We're on-scene at an incident at Blaenau Ffestiniog.

William spots a member of the emergency services.

There we go, guys. There we go. There we go.

-We're struggling to locate the casualty.

-Visual. Visual.

-Got him. Disregard.

-Located.

-That's the right guy. Right by the bridge now.

They've found the casualty.

Aircraft captain William Wales prepares to land.

-Are you going to land in that big quarry puddle?

-Just out of the puddle, so we don't get wet.

-We are committed.

-We are committed.

Winchman Rich T now needs to assess the 15-year-old casualty.

He's in a difficult and dangerous spot.

Did he get himself up off the road?

-With the help of his friends over there.

-They dragged him up here?

Yeah. You all right, son?

He fell off an old railway bridge,

but he landed on some quite hefty rocks, very uneven.

He was very battered and bruised in his ribs, but very purple,

and a bit of bleeding going on.

And that can lead to quite significant underlying

injuries that you can't see.

The seriousness of the boy's injuries means co-pilot

Dan Loxton needs to inform the local hospital.

Rescue, Rescue 122.

Winchman, be advised the casualty is 15 years old and will require a trauma team on-scene, over.

Have you got his surname?

-He's Liam Evans.

-SHE SPEAKS WELSH

Time is ticking.

The Sea King is low on fuel after the long search,

and the crew now have to decide whether to stay on site or go off to refuel.

Rich, you've got about er...about 12 minutes.

It's going to take at least 15.

'In this particular instance, Rich needed quite a long time on the ground to stabilise the casualty.'

In that situation it's always the paramedic's call - if he says,

"No, I want to go now", then we just stay and we go with what

we have and make do, but in that particular instance Rich was happy,

so we zipped off to Caernarfon and got a refuel.

Rich T stays behind with Liam. It's a vulnerable moment.

The winchman will need all his 13 years of experience

as a paramedic to make sure the boy's condition doesn't deteriorate.

'The ambulance service had done a very good job of stabilising him.'

My role really then was to package the lad as quickly as we could,

really, just in case, cos younger people can take a very big

drop-off and become very poorly very quickly,

so there's always that concern with the younger, that you must press on.

20 minutes later the Sea King is back on scene.

Because of the tricky location,

the crew decide to winch the casualty aboard.

OK, Rich. Tell the guys we'll be coming over their heads.

The ones behind you.

If you're happy with the height, Will, so we can make the commit.

The crew now have to rely on one another to rescue Liam.

From the side door, radar operator Brammers acts

like a second pair of eyes for aircraft captain William.

Winching out. Right.

Height is good. Hook to hand.

Handling the aircraft during the winch is one of the most

challenging tasks for the captain.

It is a challenging procedure,

and it's inherently dangerous to put a man

on a very thin piece of wire hanging underneath nine tons

of helicopter that's susceptible to turbulence

and problems itself, and may have to fly away.

The final decision rests with you as the captain.

It's kind of an unwritten rule that the rear crew, they have to be happy with you as well.

'You have to analyse the information you're given

'and make the best judgement.'

It's not easy. It makes you feel worried, concerned,

You obviously want to make the right call.

I have a duty of care for the crew -

for the casualty in many cases as well,

so you do have to think very carefully.

Overall, I've got three other guys I can always rely on for my decision-making.

I'm clear.

-Forward to the commit area.

-Yeah.

I'll get this... OK, mate. Winch.

-Out.

-Out.

-Stop.

-Stop.

Going to decline and take the tail round to the right.

Liam is safe on board.

In just ten minutes time, he'll be in Bangor's Ysbyty Gwynedd

to receive urgent medical care.

It really focuses the mind when you've got either a young child

or a young woman or a young man or old man or whatever it is

you're going to, it focuses the mind

when there's an actual real person at the end of it

who needs your help. You are their only hope sometimes.

When the bell goes, you never know what you're going to get.

It can be a broken ankle in the mountains through to a major trauma.

I feel sorry for the poorly people we're going to rescue

but this is what we're here for. This is what we do.

Every year, more than 100 casualties arrive by RAF helicopter

to the Emergency Department at Bangor.

Dr Linda Dykes appreciates the unique challenges

the Search And Rescue winchmen have to face.

We have a quite high ECG.

I think they do an incredibly difficult job.

To see the full range of things that I have to see

but with a lot less training, with a lot less resources.

It's an incredibly difficult job.

I just think it's awesome that people are willing to do it.

On her days off, she helps train the Search And Rescue paramedics

at RAF Valley, on the ground and in the air.

I love being involved with the training of the RAF rear crew.

Because I've been involved with sea flight at Valley now

for about seven years and flown regularly throughout that time,

I've got a pretty good grasp of the challenges

of their working environment. If I'm then flying with them,

I can then help them if any issues come up, any questions come up.

He claims to have stopped breathing when he was given morphine.

If you just stop breathing with morphine,

that is a recognised side effect of the drug.

The back of the Sea King, it's very noisy. It's very smelly.

It stinks of aviation fuel. It's a very difficult working environment.

I think the crew like to bring casualties here

because they know we understand the environment they work in.

Sometimes, in hospitals who don't routinely take

Search And Rescue casualties, they may get asked,

"Why haven't you done X, Y, and Z?"

"That's impossible in the back of a helicopter, mate. We can't do that."

And much to the amusement of the crew, getting Dr Dykes airborne

sometimes isn't quite as easy as it looks.

Not much of a run-up. Failed at the first hurdle.

Slow and steady.

Although it's a great privilege to go flying

and I always look forward to spending time with the boys,

I don't actually like flying very much. I get a bit airsick.

I don't enjoy tight flying round mountain bowls

because I tend to lose my lunch.

But it's a worthwhile sacrifice for Dr Dykes.

One of the most satisfying things I have done is see a couple of winchmen

through from being real baby winchmen

coming off their basic first aid course,

and then coming through and qualifying as paramedics.

You almost feel quite proud. Our winchmen that we helped train.

It's really very humbling. It's fantastic.

At the Royal Marines Barracks at Chivenor, Sergeant Nick Jones

from Swansea is on his first ever shift as a winchman.

He's one of the Search And Rescue Force's newest recruits.

For me, it's the business end, if you like.

Where you get the hands on. I get the excitement

of going out on the wire, but together with that

the medical side, which is something that appeals to me.

He's spent 12 months training to be a winchman,

and hopes to be a fully qualified paramedic in 18 months' time.

Today on his first shift, it's not long before a call comes in.

Road traffic accident just a few miles away,

two badly injured casualties.

Rescue, this is Rescue 169, over.

Chivenor's Rescue 169 covers South Wales

and the coastline of North Devon and Cornwall.

Nick's first ever rescue is underway.

Obviously nervous and in trepidation of what's going to come.

I think it's good to get it out of the way,

get the nervousness out of the way.

Hopefully should run smoother from there.

There's been a serious accident on a road in Devon.

A 69-year-old man is in a critical condition.

I think they're talking about a life-threatening injury,

so I think it'll just be the nearest hospital.

A driver is trapped inside his red MG sports car.

Two other drivers are being treated at the scene

in what looks like a three-car collision.

Nick's camera gives us his view of the rescue.

It's a severe crash.

Experienced Radar Operator Beano takes new boy Nick under his wing.

With a more experienced winchman, the winchman would know what to do.

In that instance, I went with Nick

and was able to talk things through with him as events progressed.

He could direct me in some of the things I should be thinking about

or some things I should be doing that I perhaps hadn't thought of

at the time so he was very useful.

Take a paramedic with us, so that takes the pressure off us.

Tony Smith was only half a mile away from his home near Bideford

when his red MG sports car was caught in the three-vehicle crash.

By now, the fire crews have managed to cut him out

of his red sports car. The priority is to take him

to the nearest trauma unit on the Sea King.

His injuries mean that a doctor and a paramedic join Nick on board.

They highlighted that this casualty had a life-threatening condition.

Speed was of the essence, you know. We couldn't hang around.

We've got one casualty. And he's in a bad way.

-Two cars?

-It was a Range Rover and he was in an MG.

-Oh, dear, so this one was in the MG.

-Yeah.

Once we were in the aircraft, we had to monitor him throughout.

Make sure his condition wasn't deteriorating rapidly.

He had massive chest injuries.

Maintain his oxygen and maintain his airway

to make sure he didn't deteriorate any further than he already was.

With the casualty now stable and no longer in danger,

the crew hand him over to the waiting medical team.

To be perfectly honest, it was the ideal first job for him.

I choose my words carefully because it was obviously horrendous

for the casualty. From Nick's point of view, he was able

to witness a life-threatening injury and assist a doctor and a paramedic,

which from his perspective was ideal.

Right, mate?

And relax.

Yeah.

There is always that apprehension when you first start the job,

particularly on your first day or your first couple of shifts.

Get your first job out of the way. It puts you at ease,

makes you realise that actually the training I've had is sufficient,

I know what I'm doing.

RAF Valley on Anglesey

is home to the Search And Rescue Force Headquarters.

Here more than 50 staff ensure that helicopters and their crews

can respond to a callout night or day, anywhere in the UK.

The crews are on rolling 24-hour shifts.

They live, eat and work closely together

and that leads to a special bond.

You cannot do a job that is

as intellectually and physically and emotionally demanding as this

without bonding to people.

There's a lot of banter which is fun

but it's also building relationships and friendships

which are very important.

In this job, if you have friends and guys you get on with,

you've got have fun and laughs. At the end of the day,

you're operating sometimes in dodgy and dangerous conditions.

You have to rely on each other quite a lot.

Getting to know each other, being a family, is all part of that.

We are a family.

For those 24 hours, the other people,

they're you brothers and sisters, your mums and dads,

or the unruly children, depending who you've got on shift.

You have to be that close-knit. You have to give each other some banter.

There has to be pressure release.

Flight Lt Dave Prochera-Best

has 17 years' flying experience with the RAF.

He's served both in Northern Ireland and Iraq.

I find the whole challenge of rescue is fascinating.

The fact that we have to work together as a four-person crew.

There's a lot of decisions that have be made democratically, almost.

Every rescue is almost like its own little puzzle on its own to crack.

Today's puzzle will put the crew's teamwork to the test.

We're taking five guys.

We've got a fallen mountain biker, not too far,

but the weather has deteriorated. The wind's starting to get up.

The cloud base is low with quite poor vis in this rain

coming through. Shouldn't be too bad but we've got a bit of high ground

to get over so we'll see as we get there what the situation is.

They have enough fuel onboard to last them two and a half hours.

It should be more than enough to get them

to the Coed y Brenin Forest Park near Dolgellau.

It's a popular destination for mountain bikers.

But today one biker is in trouble.

Have a visual of an ambulance at 2 o'clock.

They've spotted the ambulance, and just down the track

they see the casualty being carried in a stretcher.

Now the problem for the crew is to find somewhere safe to land

in the dense 9,000-acre forest.

Flight Sergeant Gordon Watt is today's winchman and paramedic.

Due to the position that the ambulance and the casualty

find themselves in, it's not really safe for us to winch

so we've elected to land in a field which has got access

so I'm just trying to find the ambulance.

Mountain Biker Saul Parker was thrown head first

over the handlebars of his bike on the forest trail.

Cos you've taken a blow to your head,

potentially you could be masking an injury in your neck or spine.

Just keep your head nice and still.

But for Captain Dave in the waiting Sea King,

this rescue is about to take a new dramatic turn.

Second job coming in, boys. Another mountain biker!

They're dropping like flies!

They've now been called to a second mountain biker casualty

15 miles away.

Co-pilot Alex Brassington leaves the Sea King

to inform the crew on the ground.

Want six people to lift this in, please.

The second bloke's got injuries and also paralysed from the neck down.

They now have to decide if they have enough fuel

to take the first casualty to hospital before rescuing the second.

Can we go to Bangor and then go back for this guy?

Might not have enough gas.

It will take an hour and a half

to take the first casualty to hospital by road.

Gordon now has a tough decision to make.

He has to get his first casualty to hospital as soon as possible

but he also needs to get to the paralysed casualty fast.

I didn't know to begin with, the best decision.

Hindsight is the only thing that's going to tell us.

Um...

..you're about an hour and 20 from hospital.

Yeah, yeah.

We'll take him.

'Because the second casualty's condition was reported

'as having serious spinal injuries with possible paralysis,'

I was ultimately left with no other option

but to try my best, which was to try to pick up both.

They take the gamble that they can rescue both with the remaining fuel.

-Bloody hell! Nightmare.

-I know.

The Sea King crew calculate they have just enough fuel

to rescue both casualties.

They head for Blaenau Ffestiniog, eight minutes' flying time away.

But bad weather means the Sea King is burning even more fuel.

Cross this ridgeline on the left,

there's a low patch of cloud right on the nose.

I think we can get round to the left of that.

We've got everything going on at that point.

We need to get to this casualty as soon as we can.

We are running out of fuel, we have got the weather to dice with

and yes, there was a couple of fairly hairy moments

where we were going through the little gaps in the hills

and we were pretty much at our limits of what we could achieve.

A waiting crowd has gathered

as the Sea King finally gets to the second casualty.

Gordon is winched down.

Over the side now, winching out.

It's clear, and that's right by then forward.

He's on the ground and he's clearing the hook. Empty hook winching in.

We don't have much fuel

so what I'll do is quickly whip you into our stretcher,

winch you onto our aircraft with the other guy we've got in there

from down the road, and take you into Bangor.

Five minutes later, it's time for the winch-up.

Steady. On the hook, steady.

Winching in, two on.

At the door. Winch out.

Both injured mountain bikers make it to Bangor's Ysbyty Gwynedd.

The suspected paralysed biker is immediately taken for treatment.

OK, ready? OK, ready, brace.

On board the Sea King, the first mountain biker,

Saul Parker from London, has time to reflect on the day's events.

I don't remember at all. I'd finished cycling,

just went off for one last little burn.

Probably let my guard down a little bit. Got a bit excited.

For Captain Dave Prochera-Best,

today's successful outcome is all about teamwork.

I would think it's one of the harder ones.

It's always difficult when the safety of your aircraft

and your crew, versus a casualty that you know

could be very seriously injured and any delay in that casualty's care

is going to adversely affect their chances of recovery.

It's always a difficult decision.

Mountain Biker Saul Parker was discharged from Ysbyty Gwynedd

two days later after an operation on his fractured arm.

After fracturing two vertebrae in his upper spine,

Mick Woods from Rotherham went on to make a full recovery.

He can't wait to get back on his bike

and is already planning another trip to Wales.

I'll be coming to buy a fridge magnet,

probably with a helicopter on!

For the RAF Search And Rescue Force,

working in a tough and difficult terrain

is all part of the challenge of saving lives.

The job is the variety. Actually going out and helping people,

who otherwise would be in quite a predicament.

It's as simple as that.

After falling 20 feet in a quarry, 15-year-old Liam

made a full recovery from his injuries.

Don't know what we'd have done without them,

so thankful towards them.

That sense of satisfaction when the team pulls together,

especially if it's a life-saver, it's an amazing feeling.

Three months after his car crash Tony Smith knows that he owes

his life to the emergency services and Chivenor's Rescue 169.

I don't think I was expected to live initially.

I think I've been extraordinarily lucky.

I'm proposing to go over to Chivenor and put some money behind the bar

so they can have a drink on me.

Personally, it's working with a bunch of guys who I get on with.

It's challenging and at the end of the day,

you're doing an extremely important job.

There's no greater feeling than when you actually feel

you've done some real good and you've saved someone's life.

-What are we going to do about food?

-I would rather have a curry tonight.

-Or Chinese?

-Yeah.

Next time on Helicopter Rescue.

Summer in Snowdonia means one thing - tourists in trouble.

She's on a footpath, on the cliff edge.

Hard to access, an ambulance can't get there.

That's where we come into our own and that's what we're here for.

It's a race against time -

a dive ends in drama in a North Wales quarry.

Don't want the nitrogen bubbles that are in the bloodstream

to get any bigger and develop. It can lead to unconsciousness.

And back from the brink of death -

one casualty is reunited with her rescuers.

Hi, I'm Ed.

It takes a special person to do the work that they do.

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