RAF Valley Sea King assists civilian emergency services
Dyffd-Powyss Police contacted the UK Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre at RAF Kinloss at 04:30 am on Saturday June 9 and asked for RAF SAR helicopter assistance to assist rescue efforts after severe flooding affected areas in western Wales. The duty crew of RAF Sea King, callsign Rescue122 from C Flight, 22 Squadron at RAF Valley on Anglesey was tasked to attend this incident at 04:43 am. After reviewing the current and forecast meteorological forecasts and calculating the required fuel load, the crew of Rescue 122 lifted from their Anglesey base at 05:18 am, flying to the flooded area to commence a search and rescue operation. This was centred around the small towns of Borth and Tal-Y-Bont, just north of Aberystwyth.
Rescue 122 arrived on scene at 05:51 am and almost immediately received their first tasking from the on-site Coast Guard coordinator. They were advised that 2 persons had been reported trapped in a caravan after it had been hit by a wall of floodwater. The caravan was swiftly identified and RAF SAR Winchman, Sergeant Dickie Myers, was lowered by winch cable. He found and retrieved both caravan occupants by winch to the Sea King. The second tasking was to a group of three people who had sought refuge on the flatbed of a lorry. All three people were winched aboard the Sea King once again by Sergeant Myers, assisted by the skilful precision of the Sea King’s radar/winch operator,Flight Sergeant 'Livvy' Livingstone. Rescue 122’s final tasking was to move four members of Borth Lifeboat after their inflatable boat had become stranded by floodwater debris carried downstream as they searched for trapped persons.
Flight Lieutenant Al Conner, co-pilot of RESCUE 122 said, “We were forced to operate within an extremely small space, with highly-limited manoeuvring room at all 3 search areas. A second RAF Sea King, callsign Rescue 169, from our sister unit at A Flight based at Chivenor in North Devon, was on standby to take-over from us. Fortunately, the services of this second Sea King were not required and we were stood-down by the on-scene coordinator shortly after completing our third rescue.”
The crew of Rescue 122 has now been relieved and are enjoying a well-earned rest after what proved to be a busy 24 hour shift during, which they conducted two further, unrelated rescue missions over Wales.
