LIGHT AIRCRAFT JOIN FLOOD PATROLS

01 Dec 2009

Save to de.icio.us

 LIGHT aircraft and private pilots of the Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol have joined in rescue operations in flooded areas of the UK.

Units from Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol (SKCAP) in Scotland, Northumberland and Yorkshire were on standby with Red Cross Emergency Services and the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre at RAF Kinloss, to deploy to
Carlisle if required.

SWCAP are used to deploying aircraft to emergency areas and have recently carried out two deployment exercises with the Red Cross - one to a multi service search & rescue training exercise where they based two aircraft at Dornoch for Highland searches. The other deployment was five SWCAP aircraft to Cark (Lake District) to provide continual two-day air cover for the Great North Swim - 2,000 people in batches of 100 swimming Windermere.

In the event SWCAP were not deployed to Carlisle because all light aircraft were grounded due to the weather - effectively the RAF and Navy Sea Kings were the only machines able to operate in the prevailing conditions.

Once the weather eased, SWCAP were busy on photo sorties to provide situation reports on flooded areas.

The photo above was taken by a No.2 (York) Unit gyrocopter (crew Arnold Parker and Phil Harwood) on a flooding photo sortie for North Yorkshire County Council Emergency. It shows flooding at Naburn Lock near York.

The pictures were transmitted to York CC shortly after landing. It illustrates why a photograph of the actual situation enables a much better evaluation to be made.

www.skywatchcivilairpatrol.org.uk

 

Send To A Friend