The Longest Four-Minute Flight Ever
Sources from Britain's Royal Air Force told Aero-News Thursday
that an RAF Sea King rescue helicopter, stranded 3000 feet up in
the Cairngorm Mountains since being abandoned during a rescue over
a week ago, was finally flown out of the hills Monday.
A major operation to recover the ten-ton aircraft
(above) finally paid off when aircrew and engineers succeeded
in thawing out and starting the helicopter in Coire an Sneachda
(Corrie of the snow) near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands.
The helicopter, from RAF Lossiemouth, was engaged in the rescue
of a walker with a broken ankle on the evening of Monday, February
27 when a sudden, violent blizzard forced it to land in a hollow
within the mountain. The winter weather also caused serious icing
on the rotor blades, rendering the aircraft unflyable.
Several attempts were made since then to recover the helicopter,
but all proved impossible due to seriously adverse weather
conditions -- including low clouds and heavy snow, together with
biting cold winds and temperatures well below zero.
Finally, on Monday, a
break in the weather allowed crews to fly the stranded helo off the
mountain.
"This was a prolonged operation where the weather proved the
main factor. It was quite incredible that the sun came out in the
final hours to help the efforts of the engineers," said Flight
Lieutenant Darren French from RAF Lossiemouth, who flew the
aircraft on the two-mile, four minute journey. "Both engines
started first time and after a moment to check out some slight
vibration we were on our way. There were no problems at all during
the flight. We landed with less than ten minutes of daylight
left."
The helo rescue was truly a joint effort, with the Royal Navy
team from 845 Naval Air Squadron at Yeovilton lending their Air
Force brethren a hand by providing Arctic defrosting equipment
including generators and pipes, as used to defrost Royal Marine
Commando Sea Kings in northern Norway. This equipment was flown up
to the site as three separate underslung loads beneath another
Lossiemouth helicopter.
The combined efforts of RAF aircrew and engineers, together with
a Royal Navy team, succeeded in thawing out the aircraft, getting
it started and flying it the two miles to Glenmore Lodge near
Aviemore -- the national Scottish outdoor center -- where it
remained overnight before a further inspection in the morning.
A Naval mobile air operations team was also involved.