RESCUE watch this week returns to Chivenor and the yellow rescue helicopters of 22 Squadron.

August was a relatively quiet month for the guys; they were only called out 32 times, 25 per cent less than August of last year.

Perhaps it is due to the fantastic work being done by all of North Devon's Lifeguards, RNLI and coastguard units, all making our coastlines a safer place.

Being quieter than usual doesn't mean that we have had an easy month.

The bad weather has at times made some rescues especially difficult.

The crew have had to fly through cloud at extremely low level and in appalling conditions in order to get to those in distress.

One of these occasions was on August 20 when Rescue 169 was tasked from training to a road accident near Sennybridge in South Wales.

There were two casualties trapped in a car. Firefighters were cutting the casualties out, but they needed urgent hospital treatment.

The ambulance would not be quick enough for the patients and the weather was out of limits for an air ambulance to attend.

Rescue 169 headed north across the Bristol Channel and as soon as they made land, just east of Swansea, the crew knew that they were going to have to fight against the elements.

The cloud was at times down to just 30ft from the ground and the rain was torrential.

Nevertheless the crew persevered, navigating carefully around wires, masts and pylons, flying as low as 20ft in order to assist.

They eventually arrived on scene just as the paramedics were placing the two patients into stretchers.

The crew quickly carried the patients to the aircraft with the assistance of the fire service and made them as comfortable as possible.

By this time the weather had managed to get even worse and the only option was to fly up into the cloud to a height that was safely above the surrounding hills before using the aircraft's radar to guide the aircraft to the hospital at Swansea.

Flying Officer Christian (Taff) Wilkins said that it was the worst conditions he had ever had to fly in and the whole crew had to use all of their skills in order to complete the difficult task at hand.

By Seaweed