Jan 6 2013
Incident 11/2013
At the conclusion of the below exercise, with the majority of team members who had taken part involved back at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ or en route back, the team was paged at 15.38hrs by Greater Manchester Police to render assistance in the developing search for a missing 31 years old woman in circumstances giving the Police cause for concern regards her well being.
Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE gathered the initial information from GMP and liaised with the Officer in Charge, and then sent out at 15.41hrs a full team call out page for all team members to RVP initially at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ.
With Police investigations gathering momentum, Police patrols were mounted in the area between Halliwell, Bolton and Rivington, with the aim of trying to locate the missing woman.
Thirty two Bolton MRT team call out list members, and five of our Probationary team members, responded to the call out, and soon team members in a variety of their private vehicles, and all four of our Team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance Vehicles were committed to a search of all likely road routes the missing person may have taken, between the Halliwell area where she was reported missing from and the Rivington area, where she was believed to have been heading to.
The teams part in the search operation was extended then to include searches of some specific areas, including the Wilton Quarry complex and parts of Lever Park, Rivington.
Our specialist SARDA Trail Dog Boris was deployed with his handler Steve Nelson (Fresh from their afternoons practice session, see below report) with Bolton MRT and former SARDA Dog Handler Dave Marsh acting as his navigator.
They followed a scent trail from the ‘place last seen’ of the missing woman, which gave some initial indication of a ‘direction of travel.’
The teams part in this search was co-ordinated from our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ (With thanks to our colleagues in Bowland Pennine MRT for allowing us to utilise their radio repeater on Winter Hill, which made our radio communications considerably easier to conduct) by a very experienced Bolton MRT search management team, including team member Ken Oakes (A now retired former GMP Missing Person Search Manager) our Training Officer Elaine Gilliland, Paul Brain dealing with the mapping and search plotting aspects and Diane Blakeley very ably keeping pace with all the search administration.
With the initial search phase nearing completion, and whilst in contact with GMP Officers regarding search options for continuing the search, the good news was received that the missing woman had returned to her home address, and at 17.55hrs a full team stand down was paged out to all team members.
Jan 8 2013
Incident 12/2013
This very wet morning at 09.35hrs we were paged by Lancashire Constabulary, which included a SARCALL alert, to assist with the continuation of a multi agency search for a missing 72 years old male, centred upon the River Ribble in the vicinity of Ribchester, Lancashire.
Throughout the previous night and in to the early hours of this morning the search had involved Lancashire Constabulary, Police Air Support Unit assistance, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service assets and Bowland Pennine MRT.
We were asked to take over from Bowland Pennine MRT during the daylight hours.
Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE liaised with and was informed by Phil O’Brien, Team Leader of Bowland Pennine MRT, as to their major part in the search operation, and also liaised with the Lancashire Constabulary Missing Person Search Manager.
After liaising with the Fire and Police assets already present, as to the joint search operation, we deployed our SAR Boat and a canoe to join the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Boat and Water Sled team, alongside the North West (Police) Underwater Search and Marine Unit, in a search of the River Ribble.
Other Bolton MRT members joined in with Lancashire Constabulary Officers from their Operational Support Unit to carry out bankside searches and searches of adjacent open land alongside the River Ribble in the vicinity of Ribchester.
Our part in the intensive river and river bank search was concluded without result at 16.30hrs when the light faded, to be continued tomorrow by Lancashire Constabulary and the NW(P)USMU resources.
The team would like to thank Lancashire Constabulary for their provision of excellent catering throughout this day long search, which was all the more welcomed given that the search was carried out in conditions of persistent rain and chilling dampness.
With the Bolton MRT deployed out of our usual team operational area with all its available assets, arrangements were made by our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE with his colleague Team Leaders in Rossendale and Pendle MRT (Pete Goble) and Oldham MRT (Mick Nield) for their teams to cover in turn the Bolton MRT area, should a call out occur in our home area. (With thanks to both teams for agreeing to provide this cover)
Furthermore upon the return of the twenty members from the search to our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ this evening, a further five team members were on hand to assist with cleaning of all our vehicles and SAR Boat used on the search and replenishing kit items used, all to ensure the team is ready to respond to the next call out.
The following resources were deployed during the time the Bolton MRT were involved in this search operation (ie Daylight hours, Tuesday 8th January 2013)
By admin • 2013, Incident • Tags: SearchUpland