Navy fliers battle through horrendous weather to save baby’s life

Naval fliers battled through horrendous Scottish weather on Trafalgar Day to help save the life of a baby just hours old.

Sea King Rescue 177 was scrambled at HMS Gannet in Prestwick in the small hours of October 21 to ferry the child from Oban to Glasgow for specialist treatment.

The flight would normally have taken the Gannet team of pilots Lts Mike Paulet and Guy McCallum, observer Lt Alex Stevenson and aircrewman Flt Sgt Andy Dixon about 40 minutes.

Instead, it took them more than two hours – and three aborted landing approaches to the West coast town.

The dramatic journey began with a short hop to Glasgow to pick up neo-natal paediatric specialists and equipment, before heading to Lorn and Islands District General Hospital in Oban – in what Lt Paulet said was “really terrible” weather.

He explained;

“Obviously it was dark at that time in the morning, but that alone does not cause us any great issue.

“However, Friday morning’s weather was really terrible and due to a combination of absolutely torrential rain and a very low cloud base we were forced to fly over the mountains at 5000-6000 feet, before descending in a clear area over the water in the Firth of Lorn to get visual with the surface.

“The journey from Glasgow to Oban would usually take us something in the region of 40 minutes, but battling through the conditions it was obvious it was going to take much longer.

“As we descended to low level over the water, the observer kept us clear of the land using the radar but we discovered that the visibility was so poor that even at just 60 feet above sea level we were effectively blind.

“With both pilots utilising a combination of night vision goggles and the observer Lt Stevenson controlling the aircraft on the radar, three approaches into Oban were attempted from different directions – all without success.”

Determined, however, that the tiny baby should receive the vital lifesaving medical help the helicopter was carrying, the team re-evaluated the options.

“By now it was about 4.30am and it wasn’t just the time ticking away which was concerning us,”

Lt Paulet continued.

“We were also becoming concerned about our fuel.

“We had managed to get a visual on Lismore lighthouse, just to the northwest of Oban bay.

"As a contingency plan, we talked about landing the helicopter on the island and waiting for daylight.

“Although this wasn’t ideal, the safety of the aircraft and all those on board was upper most in our minds. But so was the very ill baby.

"Taking into account our fuel situation, we decided to give it one more shot.

“Our observer once more talked us in towards the land using the radar.

"My co-pilot and I could only see the surface intermittently and so Alex assessed the situation and decided that we would try and approach from the north-west.

"This meant that any land would be silhouetted against the lights of Oban town.

“It is dangerous flying in these circumstances and we rely on teamwork.

"Alex began to talk the aircrew around on to the best approach heading using the radar as we kept looking out for land on the goggles.

“Due to the fact that we could see very little, we had to trust him completely and fly to his instructions on our instruments.

“This time it worked. Landing at the hospital at 5am, we were able to get the paediatric specialists to the baby, which was a huge relief.

"You just know that in circumstances like that, every second can be critical.

“There were certainly times when I doubted we were going to succeed in getting in, but, in the end, we did and the outcome was the best possible.”

After three and a half hours in Oban – which gave them time to refuel at Dunstaffnage – the Sea King Mk5 was airborne once more at about 8.30am, this time with the two paediatric staff, a midwife, mum, dad and the baby, who had been stabilised by the medics, as well as the four crew, on board.

The weather was still far from perfect, but daylight helped the fliers along and they safely delivered their passengers to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley at around 9.30am.

The helicopter landed back at base in Prestwick at 10.15am – some eight hours after taking the call and after a full four hours or so of flying in the thick of some awful conditions – all adding up to a 25-hour duty period for the crew.

The baby spent the weekend at the hospital in Paisley being monitored and stabilised, before being allowed to go home to Oban yesterday with mum and dad.

And, just 36 hours later, there was yet more drama, when the same crew was called to Argyll once more – again in yet more dreadful weather – this time on a four-hour call to assist an elderly man involved in a road crash near Lochgilphead.