Scotland

Royal Navy Sea King rescues newborn baby

In atrocious weather and after three aborted landings a Royal Navy Search and Rescue crew from HMS Gannet came to the aid of a newborn baby.

The baby was born at the Lorn and Islands District General Hospital in Oban, Scotland, in the early hours of Friday morning.

Due to medical complications, the decision was made to move mother and baby to a specialist care facility at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. The alarm was raised and Rescue 177 - Gannet's call-sign - was scrambled.

Launching at 2.45am, the dramatic journey for the four-strong crew in their Sea King Mark 5 helicopter began with a short hop to Glasgow to pick up neonatal paediatric specialists and equipment, before routing north west to Oban.

The autumnal weather of Scotland's west coast, however, had no intention of making this a straightforward job for the crew from the UK's busiest helicopter Search and Rescue unit. Pilot Lieutenant Mike Paulet explained:

“ 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 5,000 to 6,000 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 [navigator] 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.

"Three approaches into Oban were attempted from different directions - all without success."

Concerned about the flying conditions and fuel levels, the team considered landing on a nearby island and waiting for daylight.

"Although this wasn't ideal, the safety of the aircraft and all those on board was uppermost in our minds,” explained Lieutenant Paulet.

“But so was the very ill baby. Taking into account our fuel situation, we decided to give it one more shot.

"Our observer, Lieutenant Alex Stevenson, 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 onto the best approach heading using the radar as we kept looking out for land using the NVGs.

"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 0500hrs, 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 was airborne once more at about 8.30am, this time with 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 Royal Navy team along and they safely delivered their passengers to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley at around 9.30am.

The baby spent the weekend at the hospital in Paisley being monitored and stabilised, before being allowed to go home to Oban on Monday.