Over the weekend of 28 and 29 October 2017 Moffat Mountain Rescue Team held its annual joint exercise.
Over 60 rescuers joined the team in the Moffat hills over the two days from
Galloway Mountain Rescue Team, Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team, Borders Search
and Rescue Team, Scottish Ambulance Service, RAF Leeming Mountain Rescue Team,
Police Scotland Mountain Rescue Team, Police Scotland Search Advisers and Scene of
Crimes Officer, Police Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway Division) and Scottish Fire and
Rescue.
The Saturday Scenario involved a minibus that had rolled off the A701 beeftub road and
come to rest in the bottom of the Devil’s Beeftub. 13 occupants of the minibus and two
walkers were injured and had be rescued from the minibus and surrounding area. This
involved lowering cutting equipment using mountain rescue stretchers to the scene and then
helping the Fire and Rescue Service access the van to allow then to release a trapped
passenger.
Other mountain rescue resources scoured the hillside to locate the other occupants of the
van who were trainee paramedics and had volunteered to role play as casualties for the day.
Some were badly injured and had to be triaged with the assistance of Scottish Ambulance
Service and then evacuated over rough terrain to waiting ambulances.
On the Saturday afternoon a new scenario was injected with a helicopter with 6 occupants
onboard going missing over the Moffat Hills. The search area was too big to execute a
ground search and an aerial search had not found the missing helicopter. This meant the
search was stood down overnight with the teams allowed to have a rest and receive a
presentation of dealing with downed aircraft by the RAF.
The next morning the team was joined by Coastguard 199 helicopter from Prestwick. While
some personnel deployed by road led by RAF Leeming and the Police Scotland MRT the
rest were deployed by helicopter onto the hill tops. After a short search the missing
helicopter was located and it became clear that it had collided with a paraglider who was
now also missing. Once all the casualties were located stretcher evacuations took place
from various locations across the hillside.
The exercise is important to allow all the teams to work together in a controlled environment
and acquire new acquaintances and skills which can be used in future rescues. Shaun
Duignan, team leader of Moffat Mountain Rescue Team said “ we would like to thank all the
agencies who came to help in the joint exercise. It was valuable for Moffat Team and the
others to work together to rescue the casualties and valuable to work alongside our
emergency service colleagues to understand the different approaches we may need to take
in a major incident such as the two over the weekend.
