Episode 2 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 life-saving 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...

Summer in Snowdonia means one thing...

tourists in trouble.

The Sea King is called to a badly injured walker

perched on a cliff edge.

She's on a footpath on the cliff edge.

It's hard to access, an ambulance can't get there.

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

It's the call-out that all search and rescue crews dread.

A woman is missing and there are serious concerns for her safety.

We are exposed.

We're exposed to a lot of things that aren't very pleasant.

And back from the brink of death,

a survivor is reunited with the Sea King crew that saved her life.

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

The summer months are always the busiest time of year

for the RAF Search and Rescue Force.

PHONE RINGS

Especially for 22 Squadron C-Flight based at RAF Valley.

We get a lot of holidaymakers here to Anglesey

and the surrounding area of North Wales. So in the summer we're particularly busy.

People don't generally do these sports all year round,

so kayakers, general canoeists, divers, things of that nature,

wind surfers, kite surfers,

they're the types of injuries that we get.

PHONE RINGS

A call comes into the operations room.

C-Flight Squadron Leader Brassington...

Winchman Dickie Myers and the rest of the crew are scrambled

to one of Snowdonia's deadliest and most notorious danger spots.

Kinloss Rescue. Kinloss Rescue.

Rescue 122, Rescue 122. Radio check.

They head to the old Dorothea slate quarry in the Nantlle Valley.

The quarry lake is a popular training location

for amateur divers, but today one diver needs urgent help.

-On scene in a couple of minutes, gents. Is everyone happy?

-Yeah.

A 56-year-old diver is in trouble.

After surfacing from his dive, nitrogen bubbles have begun

to form in his bloodstream.

Emergency services at the scene confirm the crew's worst fears,

it's a life-threatening case of the bends.

-Bendy diver, Dorothea.

-Yeah.

He's dived to a depth of 160 metres.

He's been up for an hour.

-He's been sick.

-Yeah.

If somebody has the bends

then they need to go to a decompression chamber, ultimately.

Speed is of the essence, really, to get them into that chamber.

It's not the first time Rescue 122 has been called to Dorothea quarry.

20 divers have lost their lives here in the last 20 years.

They need to get their casualty to specialist medical care, fast.

You are clear below.

Winchman Dickie Myers heads for the casualty.

Diver Keith Moores is feeling nauseous, dizzy and disorientated,

classic symptoms of the bends.

Paramedics have been giving him oxygen

to reduce the level of nitrogen in his bloodstream.

This will slow down the potentially deadly bubbles from forming.

You just don't want it getting any worse, really.

You don't want the nitrogen bubbles, that are in the bloodstream,

to get any bigger and develop.

It can lead to unconsciousness.

I'll put him on my O2 bottle and I'll take him to the aircraft.

I'm going to do that now.

But the oxygen won't cure this casualty.

He needs to be taken to a specialist pressure chamber

at Murrayfield Hospital on the Wirral.

There's no time to put him in a stretcher,

they need to get him into the aircraft.

The journey to Murrayfield Hospital takes half an hour in the helicopter.

By road, it would take three times as long.

But the captain needs to fly at a low altitude

to stop more nitrogen bubbles forming in the diver's bloodstream.

At Dorothea quarry, they've already ascended at a point

which is quite high above sea level.

Our priority, as pilots, is to get them to the medical establishment as quickly as possible,

but limit the height at which we fly them, to limit the effects of the bends.

The Sea King cruises at 200 feet above sea level.

After they arrive in Merseyside, Dickie hands over his casualty

to the decompression chamber's staff.

-Hello, Keith, I'm Doctor Tim.

-Hello.

Luckily he's here.

The actual transport from the site to here quickly is critical.

If he was left, the bubbles

would be forming in the brain and elsewhere in the body.

Keith Moores now starts an intensive eight-hour treatment for the bends.

He'll then have to spend two hours a day over the next four days

locked in the decompression chamber to treat his symptoms.

For Keith, what started out as an afternoon's dive

has turned into a nightmare.

Basically, he's been handed over to the doctor now.

They'll look at him, put him in the decompression chamber,

and our lift's just arrived. That's us on our way to our next job now.

The RAF Search and Rescue crews are always on standby

for the next call-out.

24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Each crew member is on a tour of duty,

which can take them to any of the RAF bases around Britain and around the world.

Radar Operator Graeme "Livvy" Livingston

is back from his latest detachment.

Today he's back home in Anglesey after being posted to the Falkland Islands.

-Hello!

-Hey! How are you?

For his wife, Debbie, it's been a long six weeks.

-Hello.

-I love you.

It's fantastic, obviously, to be back.

-It's heavy.

-I don't want a heavy one.

All I've seen of these guys, over the last six, seven weeks

is just a little computer screen

and it's nice to talk to them and everything out there,

but, yeah, just seeing them in the flesh again.

I know it's only been six or seven weeks, but it's long enough.

-Shall we go up to Cardiff?

-Yes, please.

-And see the Dr Who Experience?

-Yes!

It gets less difficult each time,

that you get more used to being able to see that the kids are happy

and they've got their things in place, they've got their routines.

You know that everything's happening back in the UK,

the way it should do.

Is that a deal?

The annual Families' Day at Valley is a chance

for the RAF's Search and Rescue Force to thank the families of the crews.

It's an opportunity for the people who are doing this job

to give something back to their families

because there is no question that we ask a lot of our families

and, I think, it's the least we can do

to occasionally give something back to them to say, "Thank you."

Why don't we come down and all enjoy a day together,

in recognition of the unquestionable sacrifices that they make.

You only get the chance to meet everybody once a year.

You know, mums and dads, you get to meet the grandparents, as well.

It's one big family, it's good.

And there's a new face and a new radar operator on base.

Sergeant Martin Seaward or "Seaweed" is on his latest detachment at RAF Valley.

It's really great, sort of, coming up to Valley

because, having done just over three years at Chivenor,

it's quite nice getting to know everywhere.

I still struggle with the place names quite a bit,

but I'm sure I'll get used to them in due course.

He's already made his mark on the rest of the crew.

Seaweed likes to talk, so we have to put up with a lot of Seaweed chat!

'I do get the mick taken out of me quite a bit, but I do bring it on myself a lot,'

because I'm usually one of the chief culprits of taking the mick out of everyone else.

So I only ask for it, really. So...

-There's a new film out, what's it, Movie 43?

-Yeah, yeah, have you seen it?

Are you the leprechaun in it?

THEY LAUGH

If you're saying... Is that Gerard Butler?

Yeah, it's Gerard Butler, yeah.

You can call me Gerard Butler if you want.

There's a real good crew co-operation

and good banter levels.

Equally that sort of dies off when you get to the job

and everyone concentrates on their particular role.

Summer on Anglesey means the island's coastline

and beaches are packed with thousands of tourists.

As a result it's not long before a call comes in to RAF Valley.

PHONE RINGS

OK, thank you. Bye.

A 50-year-old female with a broken leg, Fresh Water Bay.

Today, Flt Lt William Wales takes on the role of co-pilot.

On this rescue, he'll work closely with Radar Operator Seaweed.

Together they gather all the information they can before getting airborne.

We'll get you out there anyway.

The important thing is to get the map out, have a really good look at the map.

Have a look where we're going to go, what the area's like.

It's critical you get it right and it's critical that you get it accurate as well

because you need to get there as quickly as you can and safely.

OK, thank you.

There's a broken leg on the other side of the island

Only eight minutes after they received the cry for help,

Rescue 122 are in the air.

9 o'clock, you're well clear.

We've got clearance to cross now.

-And take it nice and easy.

-Roger.

They head to a cove on the north-eastern corner of Anglesey

at Fresh Water Bay.

As co-pilot, William's job is to navigate the Sea King to the location.

Look, at 1:30, you've got the tower with what looks like a mast on it.

Aim for that, please.

As a co-pilot you're doing the planning,

you're a back-up set of eyes to monitor the captain.

If he's doing something, or is in a very hazardous situation, the co-pilot keeps an eye on him,

makes sure he's not going to get him, or us, in a particular trap

that we can't get out of, that's a quite dangerous one.

You're the secretary for the captain.

The Sea King arrives at Fresh Water Bay.

Now they look out for clues at the scene to find the casualty's exact location.

-She's on the right-hand edge of that cliff.

-OK.

Right on the corner where the mainland meets the peninsula.

Is that an ambulance down there at 1 o'clock?

There should be. The early grid you were given was of the ambulance.

OK, I have a visual of the ambulance.

She's anywhere on that thin peninsula.

She's somewhere on that cliff face there.

Shout when you've a sighting.

We've got a sighting.

They spot the casualty on the edge of a cliff.

We've got a visual now, 1 o'clock, that area there.

Just put us in a free area, off to the side.

We might get a little bit of down draught.

Actually the biggest person in the job, who doesn't get enough credit in many cases,

is the rad-op and the winch-op. They're always going on about how important they are.

They are the link between us, in the front flying the aircraft,

and the winchman who's doing the job on the ground with the casualty.

They have a very tricky task of always monitoring the two the whole time.

From the side door of the helicopter,

Radar Operator Seaweed guides the Sea King to position.

When we arrive on scene, we can't just go into throwing someone out of the door and winching.

We've got to... There's loads and loads of things to think about.

Do a recce, Seaweed.

The recce of the area.

Hazards being high ground on right side, the tail will be clear,

you have a cross wind, I don't expect too much down-draughting

but you are on the down-draughting side.

'We'll discuss things like how close we're going to get to everything,'

if there's any turbulent air, so where the wind is.

The air might be down-draughting.

The air might be coming over the top of a hill and hitting us from the top,

which might create turbulence.

We need to discuss that, and what we're going to do if we experience it.

The appointment area will be on the aircraft's axis,

past the survivors.

There's a little spine of rock, in our 3 o'clock.

We're going to put Rob there, keeping the rotor wash clear of the survivors.

-That's where we'll deploy Rob. Are we ready to winch?

-Yes.

-Winching out.

Over the side.

With the situation under control, Seaweed is ready to guide

Rob Linfoot, the winchman, down to the casualty.

Height is good.

Right one, only.

On the ground, working with the hook.

It ended up being quite a long winch

and the reason for that is we've got to balance

the safety of the aircraft with the safety of the survivor and the winchman.

-Steady... Happy, Rob?

-Yeah.

-Rob's happy, winching in.

On this occasion, to keep what we call a "fly away",

to keep the aircraft in a position where, if we do have a problem,

we can fly away from it, we had to be a little bit higher.

Slowing, approaching the door.

I'll remove the kit first.

Darlene Burton is safe on board.

After winching up her partner Lawrence,

the couple from Canada are flown to the local hospital at Bangor.

OK, jam the door.

On the last few days of their holiday in Wales,

doctors suspect she has a broken leg as a souvenir.

It was such a beautiful day, I thought I'd pick up the pace.

So I went in front of him.

I just remember just putting my foot down

and then a slide and just a crack!

Darlene and Lawrence need to catch a flight home to Canada in six days' time

but a broken tibia and fibula mean that she needs surgery.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

It's going to need an operation.

OMG!

Rescue 122 head back to RAF Valley.

Certain things we do get quite serious

and it's important to have the camaraderie and the banter

to ease the pressure,

especially the winchman and the winch-op,

they see some pretty nasty things down the back.

You're a hero, Will.

-It's a bit easier than the one we had on the last shift.

-Yeah, it is a bit.

It's nine o'clock in the evening at RAF Valley.

A call comes in...

-A female...

-Yeah.

-Has been missing for one hour.

-Yeah.

She went with three empty strips of tablets, we're not sure what the medication...

OK, super job, thanks very much.

It looks like a female that's left a note.

Possibly taken some tablets and disappeared,

so this is going to be a search.

Rescue 122 head straight for the waiting helicopter.

They're airborne in 15 minutes.

Rescue 122, we'll be on scene in just over seven minutes.

Emergency services are already on the scene.

I've got what looks like coastguard vehicles on the road,

-followed by a camper van and a couple of cars.

-Yeah.

One of those is hers, apparently.

Radar operator Dave Taylor talks to the emergency crews down below.

The initial plan, from our perspective, is to conduct the Flir search

within one mile of the car.

From the sky, Rescue 122 use specialist cameras to help them find the casualty.

The thermal imaging camera can locate a person

by the radiated heat given off from their body.

So even in total darkness

the crew can see warm objects against the cooler background.

I'm getting a good picture.

I've got people walking on the beach.

I've got a vehicle on the beach and someone walking around the other side of a dune from that vehicle.

That's obviously a coastguard unit.

Dealing with death is an integral part of the work

of the Search and Rescue crews, as Master Aircrewman Rich T knows only too well.

We are exposed, like many people in the emergency services,

in the NHS, in hospitals,

we're exposed to a lot of things that aren't very pleasant.

We have to get on with this and we deal with it.

Recovering dead bodies is also part of the job.

Victims in remote and difficult locations can sometimes only be reached by the Sea King.

It's not something anyone takes any joy in doing.

Obviously, the element of satisfaction we get from our job

is when we save life.

However, there is also an element of satisfaction,

if that was my loved one,

I would far rather that person have the ability to have a funeral,

or whatever the family wish, if you like.

It's not until you come back that you take that on board.

Discussing it with each other, is some people's help.

Other people will wait until they get home,

discuss it with their partners at home.

Some other people quietly reflect, really.

My first few harrowing incidents were difficult,

but sadly these things happen.

You've got to get on with it

and you just talk about it amongst yourselves

and you end up understanding it more and accepting it, sadly.

Back on the search, after an hour and three quarters,

there's no sign of the vulnerable missing woman.

Rescue 122 head home to RAF Valley.

I think it's time to go, guys.

Turning back is the hardest decision any captain ever makes.

I think it's time to go, guys.

There's a massive wooded area underneath us now, it'll take another hour to search.

We'll go around to the left.

We've reached fuel minimum so we'll have to head back to Valley.

We've reached our minimum fuel now.

Roger, many thanks for your help, we'll speak later. Over.

Many thanks.

It's dreadful for the casualty, it's dreadful for crew.

Erm, OK, sometimes you walk away from it and that person will be rescued by other means.

Other times you may have to turn around and leave that person to their fate.

It's a very difficult decision to make.

That, I guess, is the essence of being a captain,

is having the ability to make that decision.

Rescue 122 arrive home at RAF Valley.

There was the car, the note,

a comprehensive search by ourselves, the police, lifeboat, coastguard.

As yet, no results.

Unfortunately the weather on scene means it's not worth us continuing at this time,

just because we're not getting a good picture

and the only area left will take us forever at night.

We're suspending the search for this evening and try again in the morning.

Next day, it's good news.

The emergency services managed to find the missing woman,

and took her for medical care.

Every year more than 1,500 people are rescued by Sea King helicopters.

Handing them to the nearest emergency department

is usually the last time the Search and Rescue crews see the casualty.

But not today.

Aletia and her mum have come to RAF Valley to thank the crew that

saved her life.

It's just an honour to be here, it really is.

Yeah. An absolute honour.

Twelve months ago, 16-year-old Aletia was involved in a serious car crash in Llandrindod Wells.

When the Sea King arrived, winchman Ed Griffiths

knew she was in a critical condition.

Yeah, I remember turning up and it was clear from the onset

that it was really time critical and urgent.

She was quite seriously injured.

I was concerned for her, actually.

When we got on the aircraft I remember telling the pilots,

we need to go as fast as we can to the neuro unit at Cardiff.

Aletia suffered severe head injuries in the car accident.

For the last 12 months she's been slowly recovering,

learning how to walk and how to speak again.

I was...

involved in a RTA,

which is a road traffic accident.

The Sea King come and saved me.

They saved her life, at the end of the day.

A year almost to the day,

Aletia is reunited with the people that saved her.

Does that one bite?

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Hiya, I'm Ed.

-Hello.

-We've met before but you probably won't remember.

-No.

-This is Nick, as well.

-How are you?

Hello...

We were down the back of the helicopter that landed and took you to Cardiff.

-You look a lot better than last time I saw you.

-Thanks.

A lot, lot better. How are you doing?

Yeah, fine.

You seem really nervous.

I'm not, don't worry.

THEY LAUGH

-Can you remember anything about it?

-I can remember the day.

Just because I've been told about it.

But, that's it.

This is the Mark 3...

Oh, my God.

The kit you see down the back here is pretty much the same kit...

To me, to meet Ed and the crew here, it's just overwhelming!

Mum, stop crying.

THEY LAUGH

That's what mums do, they're allowed.

To see the Sea King...

Left!

Cos, without this, Alicia wouldn't be here now.

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

It really, really does.

It's like a little waistcoat.

I just said, "You're a hero." Cos he is, really.

There's one on that side.

I don't think that I am hero.

I think I love my job

and I do my job the same as all the other guys on the force.

-Do I look cool?

-You look superb.

Two days after breaking her leg on the Anglesey coast, Darlene Burton

left hospital and managed to catch her flight home to Canada.

And diver Keith Moors made a full recovery after being

treated for the effects of the bends.

The Sea King is invaluable. It really is. And the crew...

HE SIGHS

The adrenaline surge you get when the job phone goes is second to none.

The sense of satisfaction from a job well done

when the team pulls together and you directly intervene

and save someone's life, again,

is a job satisfaction that perhaps not many people always get.

I don't think there is any greater calling in life for someone.

To be able to see a son or daughter's face

when you bring their father or mother back from the edge of death

and to hospital. It's quite powerful.

We have a good time doing it. The flying is fun.

The flying is exciting. You put all that together and it's a great job.

Next time on Helicopter Rescue...

The Search and Rescue force head for the mountains.

It's a painful end to this walker's hike.

It was obvious that his kneecap was up into his thigh area.

Alone and in agony in this vast terrain,

how one inventive walker caught the eye of the Sea King.

And it's a tough call for the Search and Rescue coordination centre.

Two cries for help but only one helicopter.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd