RAF saves lives from the winter skies

The Royal Air Force has been helping to save lives from the skies over Suffolk, as local Police called upon the Search and Rescue team from Wattisham Airfield near Ipswich.

Twenty-eight year old pilot Flight Lieutenant Matt Thompson was the captain of last night’s mission. “We assisted with an aerial search for a missing person, just north of Bury St Edmunds for 2 hours last night.

When the ‘Scramble phone’ rings the team has just 15 minutes to get airborne. From that call we take the details of whether the emergency is ‘wet’ (over water) or ‘dry‘, is a search or a rescue, the location and any casualties involved. The route planning and briefing is done as the crew get into their survival equipment - from thermal underwear to immersion coveralls.” 

22 Squadron, B Flight, RAF, can cover the whole East Coast from the edge of Lincolnshire down to Southend, Dover and London.  The staff of 8 pilots, 4 radar/winch operators and 4 winchmen/paramedics operate 24 hour shifts, 365 days a year, and train for up to 4 hours a day to be ready for the variety of jobs they may be called out on. “I was on shift Christmas Day” Matt describes. 

“Due to the bad weather we’ve had, most of our work has been medical transfers - helping where ambulances on the ground have been unable to get through. It can be quite bizarre walking into a hospital with a patient, when you are wearing full immersion kit, particularly if you then end up waiting in casualty!”

The Sea King Mk3 can fly up to 3 and a half hours without refuelling, but some medical rescues can be an overnight job. Last Wednesday 6 January Sergeant Greig Allan was winchman on the crew who transferred a swine flu patient to Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.

With just 6 months experience the 35 year old newest member of the team is trained to ambulance technician level and can winch down to casualties with a first response bag, which includes a defibrillator for heart attack victims.

“The first thing I do on the scene is make an initial assessment - what treatment needs to or can be done now, or if the environment prevents treatment - such as in the driving snow - we winch them on board the aircraft. For us, it’s not just getting through where ground ambulances cannot, it’s also the speed at which we are able to give life saving treatment - that lady with swine flu needed urgent attention and we were able to help.”

“The Sea King carries a crew of 4, the captain, co pilot, radar/winch operator and winchman“ Greig explained. “ The winch operator follows my hand signals, left, right, up or down - he directs the pilot to be able to hold a hover, which can be up to 150 feet above the casualty. The winch can take up to 600 pounds, the equivalent of 4 people, and the slightest movement of the aircraft can make the wire swing, so you need careful teamwork!” 

22 Squadron B Flight is part of a network of 6 RAF Search and Rescue teams based around the UK, and their call outs are co-ordinated by the Aeronautical Rescue and Co-ordination Centre (ARCC) based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland.

In the first seven days of 2010 they have dealt with over 160 incidents, due to the severe weather conditions in the UK. By comparison, in the first week of 2009, they dealt with 51.
 
Warrant Officer David Green, one of the controllers at the ARCC said “It has been pretty relentless. Every shift has been busy, co-ordinating requests especially from the ambulance authorities. Over the past few days requests have come in from all over the UK.”