The Longest Four-Minute Flight Ever

Sources from Britain's Royal Air Force told Aero-News Thursday that an RAF Sea King rescue helicopter, stranded 3000 feet up in the Cairngorm Mountains since being abandoned during a rescue over a week ago, was finally flown out of the hills Monday.

A major operation to recover the ten-ton aircraft (above) finally paid off when aircrew and engineers succeeded in thawing out and starting the helicopter in Coire an Sneachda (Corrie of the snow) near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands.

The helicopter, from RAF Lossiemouth, was engaged in the rescue of a walker with a broken ankle on the evening of Monday, February 27 when a sudden, violent blizzard forced it to land in a hollow within the mountain. The winter weather also caused serious icing on the rotor blades, rendering the aircraft unflyable.

Several attempts were made since then to recover the helicopter, but all proved impossible due to seriously adverse weather conditions -- including low clouds and heavy snow, together with biting cold winds and temperatures well below zero.

Finally, on Monday, a break in the weather allowed crews to fly the stranded helo off the mountain.

"This was a prolonged operation where the weather proved the main factor. It was quite incredible that the sun came out in the final hours to help the efforts of the engineers," said Flight Lieutenant Darren French from RAF Lossiemouth, who flew the aircraft on the two-mile, four minute journey. "Both engines started first time and after a moment to check out some slight vibration we were on our way. There were no problems at all during the flight. We landed with less than ten minutes of daylight left."

The helo rescue was truly a joint effort, with the Royal Navy team from 845 Naval Air Squadron at Yeovilton lending their Air Force brethren a hand by providing Arctic defrosting equipment including generators and pipes, as used to defrost Royal Marine Commando Sea Kings in northern Norway. This equipment was flown up to the site as three separate underslung loads beneath another Lossiemouth helicopter.

The combined efforts of RAF aircrew and engineers, together with a Royal Navy team, succeeded in thawing out the aircraft, getting it started and flying it the two miles to Glenmore Lodge near Aviemore -- the national Scottish outdoor center -- where it remained overnight before a further inspection in the morning.

A Naval mobile air operations team was also involved.

FMI: www.raf.mod.uk