Smoke flare helps helicopter crew in rescue
26/04/2021
A smoke flare helped a helicopter land in windy conditions and rescue a man who had slipped down a cliff near Seaton Sluice, at Hartley Bay, Northumberland in the UK.
The man started climbing the 40-foot cliff, realised it was too dangerous and tried to climb back down. But he slipped and injured his ankle.
Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade (TVLB), the North East Ambulance Service and also its HART (Hazardous Area Response Team) responded. Rough seas and slippery rocks made it too risky for a lifeboat rescue.
The Coastguard asked a rescue helicopter from Prestwick Airport, in Scotland, to respond, the TVLB’s Facebook page reports.
The man was winched to safety. The helicopter landed on a nearby football pitch with the help of a smoke flare to show the wind direction. The casualty was then taken to an ambulance.
A TVLB spokesperson says, “Although the team train regularly for working with helicopters, it is relatively rare that we work alongside one on an incident at the coast, and today involved using a number of skills including deploying a smoke flare to help the helicopter check wind direction and speed, and also manning a hi-line during the winching process.”
