Incident 84/2012

At 12.26hrs this cold and clear blue sky early afternoon, we were paged by the NWAS (Lancashire Area) Emergency Control Room ‘Airdesk,’ regarding an incident on Winter Hill.

Answered by our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, the airdesk despatcher informed Garry that they were responding to the report of a crashed hang glider on Winter Hill and that the NWAA ‘Helimed 72’ from City Airport Manchester (Barton) was airborne en route (Indeed at that moment it passed overhead over our Team Leaders house in Tyldesley)

It was not known at this time if the team would be required on scene or not, but with no exact location given for this incident on this moorland summit, NWAS requested the team mobilise.

A full team call out was paged at 12.32hrs by which time team members were already responding to our team vehicle locations and the general Winter hill area.

By coincidence our Deputy Team Leader Geoff Seddon, was at the time of the call, in his vehicle at the base of the northern escarpment of Winter Hill, at the high point of the moorland road between Belmont and Rivington, and so he commenced an immediate visual search for the crashed hang glider location.

It turned out upon Helimed 72 (The NWAA Helicopter) landing on Winter Hill summit, that the crashed male hang glider pilot had suffered a head injury, and had been walked to his nearby vehicle by colleagues, where the responding NWAS Emergency Ambulance crew and the crew of Helimed 72 treated him.

At circa 12.40hrs we were ‘stood down responding as no longer required,’ with a pager call being sent to that effect at 12.45hrs.

In total sixteen Bolton MRT team call out list members were responding at the time of the call with one of our Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances mobile en route and three other about to go mobile.

The injured man was taken to hospital by the responding NWAS Emergency Ambulance, with the NWAA Helicopter ‘Helimed 72’ stood down on scene.