Scotland welcomes a new helicopter to its mountains

The new HM Coastguard AW189 has made a brief visit to Scotland ahead of its permanent arrival there.

It featured as part of the Scottish Mountain Rescue’s General Meeting over the weekend.

This trip is the first of many for the new helicopter as it prepares to join HM Coastguard’s search and rescue helicopter fleet across the UK.

Equipped to fly in the most hostile conditions, the AW189 will really prove its worth in supporting the work of Scotland’s mountain rescue experts as well as working along the coast.

At the conference mountain rescue delegates had the opportunity to take a closer look at the aircraft and talk to the crew about what it is capable of.

Damien Oliver, Assistant Director for Aviation for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said: ‘We are delighted that the new AW189 helicopter will shortly be joining the UK search and rescue helicopter fleet.

‘Our aircraft carry out a number of rescues in the Scottish mountains in response to people who have become injured, lost and at risk of exposure, and so we take every opportunity to train with our search and rescue colleagues to ensure we’re ready when the call comes in.’

Kev Mitchell, Vice Chair of Scottish Mountain Rescue commented: ‘We were all pleased and excited to have the opportunity to work with the new MCA AW189 search and rescue helicopter and chat to the aircrew about operational matters. Teams found this very useful and valuable. We were impressed with the capabilities of this new aircraft and look forward to its operational roll out later this year. Use of the new aircraft should enhance our operational deployment and speed response times for our casualties.

‘We are grateful to the MCA and Bristow Helicopters for bringing the aircraft from the south coast of England to our general meeting at Birnam, near Perth, as it allowed representatives from more than 20 teams to view the aircraft at one venue.’

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