General Discussion

Police helicopter locates woman stuck on cliffs at Dawlish

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.

1. ​ Snapshot from the Police helicopter showing the woman on the cliff
2. ​ Snapshot from the Police helicopter showing the scale of the cliff edge​

Due to the perilous position of the casualty, it was evident to the crew that another helicopter with a winch was required and a 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.

So thats what all the racket was about. What on earth was she doing up there at that time of the morning???

Sounds as if she really shouldn't have been out at that time of night in such a dangerous location. Fortunately, it all ended well. Once again we have to thank the emergency services who did a wonderful job.