Incidents

On Saturday 20th May at approximately 19:00hrs the team were contacted by Cumbria Police to a report of a Paraglider who had taken off from Red Screes summit and crashed into the rocks below.  He had got into difficulties when his canopy folded and sent him around 50 metres to the ground.  The Duty Leader made contact with the casualty site and established that this was in fact just into Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Teams area , however as they were already out on a rescue also to a crashed Paraglider in the Langdale Valley they asked the Patterdale Team to carry on with the Rescue.  The team were mobilised and due to the nature of the incident and difficult terrain for the extraction, a Coastguard Helicopter with winching capabilities was requested to attend.   The Great North Air Ambulance was also tasked to the incident but due to the location they were unable to land anywhere near the casualty. By this time team members were on scene and the Air Ambulance flew down to the rescue vehicles at the roadside at Kirkstone Pass Inn and kindly flew extra kit and two team members up onto the summit before departing back to their base.  On examining the casualty it was established he had only received an ankle injury , one very lucky guy considering where and how he had landed. He was given various pain relief, his injury was splinted and he was placed on a stretcher and packaged ready for winching from the scene.  The coastguard rescue helicopter arrived from Caernarfon and stood by in the valley bottom until the team were ready for the extraction. Once ready, the casualty was winched into the helicopter and flown to hospital for further treatment. Due to the terrain and location this was a longer winch than usual and some brilliant flying and skill by all involved, especially the winch man dangling nearly 200ft below the aircraft, enabled the casualty to be in hospital quickly and receiving the treatment needed.  The rescue took 3 hours involving 15 team members. The team wish the casualty a speedy recovery  and hope he is soon back flying. They would also like to thank both the Coastguard Rescue helicopter from Caernarfon and GNAAS for their assistance.