Rescue from Wells cathedral roof

[mmitch]

An unusual rescue from Wells cathedral roof.
BBC News - Wells Cathedral fall: Woman rescued from bell tower (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-27203276)
mmitch.

[76fan]

I wonder why Yeovilton, just down the road, didn't do the job .... and I don't want to start any RAF vs RN rubbish!

[sedburgh]

Maybe because Yeovilton don't have aircraft on SAR standby?

[Al-bert]

76fan
because Yeovilton don't have a rescue helicopter, crewed or equipped?

Ezekiel 1:4-28
And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north.....

Good old Zeke, well, he wasn't to know back then was he! :}


Sedburgh - you just beat me to it :ugh:

[krypton_john]

".... and I don't want to start any RAF vs RN rubbish!"

Why is it that the RN ones are so smart and tidy and the RAF ones look like they fell out of a skip?

<ducks>

[Al-bert]

cos they work for a living - the RAF ones :ok:

[76fan]

Ignoring the usual stupid comments which I expected and we get on here from some prats ...... all RN pilots are trained to winch and Yeovilton is so close I would still have expected them to be called first.

[[email protected]]

76fan - sadly a typical attitude to winching - just cuff it:ugh:

As it happens we did a thorough recce of the roof area, liaised with the Hazardous Rescue Team (HART) on scene, established the compatibility of kit between us and the medical services to ensure the comfort and safety of the casualty, briefed the HART guys on using a hi-line to stabilise the stretcher and performed the rescue as safely and expeditiously as possible.

It's called being professional which is probably why we were asked to do the job instead of letting a scratch crew who have only ever winched over the water without live people on the wire pitch up and make a mess of it.

[That SAR Chap]

Ignoring the usual stupid comments which I expected and we get on here from some prats ...... all RN pilots are trained to winch and Yeovilton is so close I would still have expected them to be called first.

Oh the irony of your first sentence...

The SAR crew did the (far from straight forward, by the looks of it) SAR task. You won't hear SAR crews asking why they were not used for SH tasking when it's near to base.

Don't forget that it's more than simply winching - it's providing a paramedic, spinal immobilisation, monitoring equipment and an effective medical handover to a hospital. Exactly as SH is not simply troops from A to B.

[Al-bert]

instead of letting a scratch crew who have only ever winched over the water without live people on the wire pitch up and make a mess of it.

oh they can do that over the water too Crab!
You'll have to wait til I finish my book to read the facts about the '79 Fastnet goatf..:bored:

[Union Jack]

A big BZ to [email protected] and the light blue team on a very unusual job very well done - and yes, I do mean it!:ok:

Jack

[[email protected]]

Thanks UJ :ok:

The prize for the best headline goes to the Sun with 'Church and Rescue'

[John Eacott]

Watching it on TV I was impressed by the smoothness of the operation.

But now I know crab@ was driving I'm not going to mention it :p



Seriously, well done to all involved :ok:

[76fan]

Of course well done to the crew and obviously there were factors to consider which presumably led to the decision that it could be done better by the RAF SAR. Isn't it sad that there is still the "them and us" attitude even when rescue of any sort involved.

[[email protected]]

There is no them an us attitude anywhere except in your head - hovering is hovering but there is a whole lot more to taking someone from a precarious position safely than just hovering.

Training and expertise are not dirty words:ok:

[Ian Corrigible]

Training and expertise are not dirty words
Good job you weren't winching anyone from a crevice... :E

I/C

[Shackman]

It's not the first time someone has needed recovering from the top of a church/cathedral tower either. The Coltishall Wessex had to recover a lady who had had a heart attack from the top of Cromer church tower 3 Sep 1988.

[Wander00]

Despite all the banter, looks like a challenging task well executed, again. Well done all, RAF and civilain

[Tourist]

Crab

You could have gone down the:-

"Thanks Guys, we were just doing our job. It is more sensible to use us as we were already on call so briefed, auth'd and ready for the shout with some better medical equipment and training on board, better comms kit for the man on the wire plus better knowledge of the suitable medical facilities.
The Junglies would have had to get a crew together, brief and start an uncocked Seaking so despite the extra distance, it made sense to use a dedicated SAR asset since we were available."

That would have put you in the "not a tw@t" bracket.

Instead you went down the "big yourself up for hovering next to a cathedral"


"Wow, look at that cathedral really moving around out there!!"

"Yes, It makes it really tricky with all that daylight getting in the way!"

"Those junglies would never cope! They can only hover in the dark on NVG whilst fast roping to heaving bridge wings with no visual references! Thank god the RAF hero was here to save the day"

[[email protected]]

Tourist - you could have gone down the route of 'well done the crabs for a job well done' - instead you set off down your usual path:ugh:

- I didn't say the junglies couldn't have done it so don't put words in my mouth but you seem to firmly believe that RN superiority exists in all areas whether you train for it or not - which one of us is the tw@t?

[76fan]

My thoughts exactly Tourist. Still we all know the RAF has the biggest PR machine ..... just look at how they would have us believe they won the Falklands war ..... I deliberately said "No RAF vs RN rubbish" in my first post .... but Crab has to make a big thing of it to get online praise (4007 posts I see, empty vessels etc?). Grow up (you may also not need silly smilies then) and be satisfied that you did a good job whether the world knows about it or not.

[Tourist]

You Crab, most certainly you.

[zorab64]

Come on Girls. There's banter & then there's bitchiness . . . and in this case (although I'm never one to big-up the Crabs) the yellow cab was the more appropriate asset for this task, from a time, briefed, kit & crew point of view. And yes, they did just as good a job as the RN SAR would have done from Culdrose . . . had this been in Truro. Calling in Junglies, whilst it may have been theoretically closer, would likely have taken longer, for all the reasons already mentioned.

As to the comment about smart looking cabs - ALL Seakings are covered in oil all the time, as anyone who's flown them knows. If it isn't dripping oil, it's empty! The reason the Crab ones look dirtier than the Senior Service machines is that they're yellow - the blue & green ones are in the business of camouflage, rather than rescue and, when you're at sea, the first thing you'd do (if you had time to clean one) was wipe the whole cab with oil to protect against corrosion. If I was really sad, I'd remember the number or name of the oil, but it's 30 years ago, I'm afraid! :ok:

[krypton_john]

Cheers, Z. I was thinking of the red & gray SAR ones, specifically. But yeah, anything on yellow looks worse!

[Al-bert]

Z64

:ok:

px27?

[zorab64]

Al-bert - thanks, "px" certainly rings a bell, and the number's there or thereabouts! :ok:

k-j - concur, although the grey is not far off oil colour, certainly the bits of it that are aft of engines & MGB where most of the oil comes from.

[[email protected]]

Oh dear the crab haters/baiters are out today.

76fan - I didn't start the thread about this rescue and I don't need to big myself up about it - I was doing hoist to crew in the LHS , the rest of the crew did the tricky stuff.

Note that the mythical RAF PR machine had nothing to do with the news coverage, it was a local photographer earning his crust selling pictures to the papers and most video footage came from the ubiquitous phone cameras that everyone has nowadays.

Tourist - I'm sure there must be some part of your aviation career that you can be proud of.......

[diginagain]

OX-27. The Gem never, ever needed an oil-change. In at the top, out through the exhaust.

[Tourist]

Proud of all of it, thanks!

...even my time on exchange with the Crabs.

Thankfully, most Crabs are pleasant, personable and when given a chance to come across as self deprecating and professional allowing others rather than themselves to blow smoke up their @rse grab it with both hands.

....most Crabs.

[Al-bert]

blow smoke up their @rse grab it with both hands.


is this a mixed metaphor or RN sop?

[3D CAM]

In a couple of years time, all of this, us and them c**p will stop! You will all be Mr/Mrs/Ms. Or will you still be willy waving and saying Newquay could have done it better/quicker than Lee or wherever!??? Get ready for the real world!!

3D

[Two's in]

So how is the casualty?

[Al-bert]

3D.........how boring, mind you, I saw that at Aberdeen!

Casualty? Oh yes! :)

[handysnaks]

Al-bert. I seem to remember what I think we used to call Rocket was px24. We used it on the old brown green camo paint on the scout if I remember correctly. It also did everything else that moved including the gloss green landies and Bedford RLs

[[email protected]]

even my time on exchange with the Crabs. and where was that pray tell?

[Al-bert]

handysnaks - Rocket, PX24 (yes) is the same as WD40 I think? At least it worked just as well as wd40, if it was supposed to move WD40 it, if not, bodge tape it! :ok:

[Fareastdriver]

Having worked with the Fleet Air Arm over a couple of decades Tourist's attitude reminds me why I had a nice warm feeling when it was announced that the Navy would lose the carriers and Harriers.

[Tourist]

Fareastdriver


"I had a nice warm feeling when it was announced that the Navy would lose the carriers and Harriers."


That says a lot about you.


Crab

If I told you that might rather give away who I was, and I prefer to be incognito whilst knowing who you are.

[[email protected]]

If I told you that might rather give away who I was, and I prefer to be incognito whilst knowing who you are.
And that says even more about you.

[Al-bert]

allowing others rather than themselves to blow smoke up their @rse grab it with both hands.

well you know what sailors are Crab! You'd have remembered surely?

[Gullwings]

[email protected] (http://www.pprune.org/members/14573-crab-saavn-co-uk) quoted:

“It's called being professional which is probably why we were asked to do the job instead of letting a scratch crew who have only ever winched over the water without live people on the wire pitch up and make a mess of it.”

Crab,
In answer to your earlier question, it appears that you are the tw@t.

Have you got an extra-large size flying helmet to get your rather big head in? Your attitude is an embarrassment to the RAF and all helicopter pilots who do not usually go around trying to blow their own trumpet and put other helicopter crews down in the way you have.

Just because you can spend 100% of your duty time preparing for/training for/occasionally carrying out such SAR tasks does not mean that other RN (or other UK forces helicopters crews) are not professional at carrying out rescues (sometimes in far worse conditions and circumstances than the Wells Cathedral rescue). For example, outside of your RAF SAR capability range capability who do you think carries out SAR rescues? Yes RN and other UK military helicopter crews. This is despite them usually not even having the luxury of the types of extra equipment and back-up specialist local resources that you can call on in the UK.

For example, RN helicopters operating from frigates and destroyers may be the only helicopter available to carry out any types of helicopter rescue requirement (land or sea) in some other parts of the world. They may also not have any other local back-up resources available to support them apart from what their own ship may be able to provide. Those RN crews also have to carry out numerous other roles (often in very demanding circumstances).

No doubt many of the other Yeovilton Sea King Commando and Lynx crews have experienced much more difficult rescue and operational challenges (often in war/conflict conditions) than a daylight winching task off a UK Cathedral roof with lots of other professional emergency service specialists present to assist.

I am sure that most military/civilians will be very grateful to have professional RN (and other UK Forces) helicopter crews continue to rescue them when you are not personally available or capable of rescuing them.

Well done to the rest of your SAR crew who actually got on with the good job done (without the need to blow their own trumpet and put others down like you did).

[Two's in]

You lot are very tiring.

[P6 Driver]

Two's In

Seconded!

[Thomas coupling]

There is only one reason why crabville did this job. Because it was not a moving stricken vessel and everyone stayed still long enough for the rescue team to get themselves organised - the Crabs did it. Simples.
No challenge for the boys in blue...best leave the cab in the hangar.......:eek: