Mountain Rescue Service Team Leader RAF Lossiemouth LOSSIEMOUTH Moray IV31 6SD

Transcription

1 Mountain Rescue Service Team Leader RAF Lossiemouth LOSSIEMOUTH Moray IV31 6SD DFTS: x 7600 DFTS Fax: x RAFMail: 85WG-MRS-Los TL See Distribution Our Reference: Los MRT 18/08 MRS REPORT A Date: 02 Mar 18 Report A Serial No: Los MRT 18/08 Date of Incident: 26 Feb 18 Military Callouts: 0 Total Military Persons Assisted this Year: 0 Civilian Callouts:8 Total Civilian Persons Assisted this Year: 03 Nature of Incident: Search Incident Area: Attadale Times: Alerted: Feb 18 Deployed: Feb 18 On Scene: Feb 18 Off Task: Feb 18 Personnel on Task: 12 of Current Team Strength: 22 Total Man Hours: 600 Total Vehicle Miles: 1361 C3: 267 Ops Vehicles: 600 Load Carrier: 289 L/Rover: 205 Other SAR Forces Involved: RAF Leeming MRT, RAF Valley MRT, Torridon MRT, R951, SARDA Cross-refer to IEC Report: N/A Narrative: At 1100 on Monday 26 th Feb Police Scotland called to request assistance with a missing overdue walker in the Attadale area. Torridon MRT and R951 were on scene conducting hasty searches. The MISPER, a 57yom, was reported to be completing a three-day expedition in the area, staying in mountain bothies each night. He had walked in from Attadale on Friday afternoon and stayed in the 1

2 Bendronaig Lodge Bothy. On Saturday morning at 0900 he had called his spouse saying he was on Ben Dronaig (a Corbett south west of Lurg Mhor). At 0930 that day, a stalker reported seeing a lone walker crossing the burn that exits Loch Calavie, this is likely to be the MISPER. At 1150 Mon 26 th Feb, 8 x Los MRT personnel transited to Inverness Airport on blue lights to liaise with R951 and coincide with the HMCG shift change over. At x Los MRT troops were deployed to grd NH , just West of the summit of Lurg Mhor. The remaining Los MRT personnel then drove to Loch Carron, collecting the 2 Op vehicles from Inverness airport en route. At last light, the troops were recovered from the mountain via R951 after extensive searching, which in excellent visibility found nothing. Los MRT then spent the night at Torridon village hall with several members of RAF Leeming MRT joining late that night after redeploying from a snow-holing expedition in the Cairngorms. Police information of the MISPER s intended route, received th Feb At th Feb Los MRT liaised at the Attadale RV with Police Scotland, RAF Leeming MRT (the remainder of troops who had relocated from Inchree that morning), 5 x SARDA dogs and handlers and the Torridon MRT. R951 was due on scene at After an evaluation of all the information available a full multi agency search plan was formulated and set in motion with 4 x SARDA and RAF MRT being deployed by R951 into the high priority mountainous search areas. Torridon MRT and 1 x SARDA searched the access and egress routes and the high craggy area of Creag Dhubh Mhor. With communications proving difficult at best, it was decided to deploy RAF Leeming TL on the last stick to 2

3 Lurg Mhor summit by R951 to act as a radio link. At th Feb a Kilo callsign reported evidence of a cornice collapse north of Biddean a Choire Sheasgaich at grd NH The site had crampons marks leading directly to the edge with no obvious sign of return and a significant avalange tip was obvious below. It was decided at that point to utilise R951 to redploy 2 x SARDA from the north side of Lurg Mhor to cover the tip with dogs. 2 further hill parties were also redelpoyed from Biddean a Choire Sheasgaich to the site in order to perform a hasty probe search of the avalanche tip and effect safety cover to those engaged in the search. After several hours of effort, the avalanche debris proved too hard to probe to any degree of accuracy or efficiency. The remaining troops not involved in the probe search completed all initial search areas. At 1600 the decision was made to recover all troops from the search area. Upon debrief it was clear that all hill parties believed they had completed their respective areas to a high probability of detection, and that the only find of any significance was the cornice collapse north of Biddean a Choire Sheasgaich. It was further agreed that the search for the MISPER would be postponed until the avalanche debris could be searched effectively, following a significant thaw, or if any other information came to light. RAF MRS troops spent the night in the Loch Carron village hall before Los MRT RTB and Lee MRT returned to Inchree to continue their winter training. Of note: Communications was problematic throughout and airwave was critical to maintain contact with all hill parties. The transition of network provider from Vodafone to EE has again proved to be fallible with EE having no coverage at all while Vodafone was complete with 3G. The B/Sigs/1 Radio log currently used in the C3 to record events raised questions from Police Scotland about its validity and effectiveness. I believe the MRS should be using the JESIP model for recoding and sharing records of decisions / actions made. Alternatively, the routine use SARCALL Logs would enable live transparency and ease any handover for joint enduring operations. Police Scotland were heavily reliant on the 27 MRS troops involved in the operation, a significant number in comparison to the Torridon MRT total of 10. (Original Signed) S Rousell FS MRT TL Annexes: A. Nominal Roll B. Relevant Photos Distribution: 3

4 Internal: OC MRS MRS Flt Cdr MRS WO MRS CI MRS Spt Flt Media RAF Leeming MRTL RAF Valley MRTL External: UNIT Stn Cdr OC Ops Wg OC Spt Wg MRTLO SWO WIT Stn Cdr 85WG-OC RAFRLO (Scotland) 85WG-XO 85WG-MRS CLINICAL LEAD WIT-GMB FHQ A4 (MULTIUSER) Air Ops A5 (Ops 3 SO1) 4

5 NOMINAL ROLL Annex A to Los MRT 18/08 Dated 2 Mar 18 Number Rank Surname Status LI / LO Station / Unit Section 1 E FS Rousell TL LO RAF Lossiemouth MRT 2 A Sgt Coombes TL LO RAF Lossiemouth MRT 3 K FS Alexander TL LO RAF Lossiemouth Safety Centre 4 B Cpl Beer TL LI RAF Lossiemouth MRT 5 E Sgt Freestone TL LO RAF Lossiemouth 1 Sqn 6 B Sgt Rutzler TL LO RAF Lossiemouth MRT Flt Lt Padbury PT LO RAF Lossiemouth FDS SAC(T) Devine T LI RAF Lossiemouth MRT SAC McCaffery PT LI RAF Lossiemouth MRT SAC Jewison PT LO RAF Lossiemouth MRT Cpl MacDonald N LI RAF Lossiemouth 51 Sqn Cpl Slater N LI RAF Lossiemouth P Ed Flt Cpl Tucker N LO RAF Lossiemouth 51 Sqn Cpl Thompson PT LO RAF Lossiemouth 2 Sqn A Flt Lt Stewart PT LO RAF Leuchars UAS Q Sqn Ldr Moore PL LI RAF Valley OC MRS SAC Chatwin N LI RAF Lossiemouth GEF Cpl Cornwell N LO RAF Lossiemouth SMC SAC Mclaughlin N LI RAF Lossiemouth 51 Sqn SAC(T) Hendry Tri LI RAF Lossiemouth 1 Sqn SAC(T) Ryott Trialist LI RAF Lossiemouth 1 Sqn SAC Thomas Trialist LI RAF BZN SAC Fernie Trialist LI RAF Lossiemouth SAC Marchant Guest LI RAF Lossiemouth PSF SAC Fernie N LI RAF Lossiemouth MT 26 D Sgt Jones TL LI RAF Valley Chief Instructor

6 RELEVANT PHOTOS Annex B to Los MRT 18/08 Dated 2 Mar 18 Troops deployed via R951 B-1

7 RAF MR conducting detailed search of vast remote area in excellent visibility Troops in the avalanche debris. Their relative size demonstrates the scale of the tip. B-2

8 Blocks of ice in avalanche debris had been re-frozen after thawing. This process produces very hard consolidations of snow and ice, here producing blocks as large as cars. B-3

9 RAF Leeming TL performing Comms Link on Lurg Mhor summit Completed multi agency search area B-4