General Discussion
For a couple of hours. It was on a holding pattern, mainly hovering out to sea off Teignmouth and then flying over Dawlish waterfront. Hope all was well, and everyone OK
If it's not a serious incident then see strand on Police Helicopters.
There's an explanation there that they have to "use up their hours" before end of financial year. Alternatively, continuing theme of previous strand, they may have just fitted infra-red camera technology and are taking advantage of the warm weather to test it out.
Hopefully just a training exercise. One day someone's life (maybe mine) will rely on that training, so being kept awake for an hour or so, is a small price to pay.
On Friday night, the Police Helicopter located a woman in her 50’s from the Exeter area who had fallen off a steep cliff close to Horse Cove, near Dawlish. The circumstances are unclear as to how the woman had become stuck on the cliff.
The woman had alerted police to her plight using her mobile phone and the helicopter crew found her in the pitch dark by using the highly sophisticated thermal imaging camera.
Due to the perilous position of the casualty, it was evident to the crew that another helicopter with a winch was required and a SAR (search and rescue) helicopter was requested from Chivenor RAF base.
The local Coastguard were also in attendance and took control of the cliff top whilst the rescue took place. They had also set up a rope rescue in case the RAF helicopter winchman could not reach the person.
The lady was successfully winched off the cliff face and flown to Exeter Hospital where her injuries were fortunately assessed as minor.
This was a fine example of how three separate agencies (Police, Coastguard and SAR) worked together in challenging circumstances.
The attached snapshot photos (in black hot) from the police helicopter video show the woman on the cliff, the scale of the cliff edge, the Coastguard setting up their ropes and the RAF helicopter on scene.
For pictures see - http://helicopterblog.devon-cornwall.police.uk/2012/03/police-helicopter-locates-person-stuck.html
Great result, from awesome crews & teams !! My praises to all those involved and best wishes to the lady rescued.
