A teenage girl lost and injured on a landmark Keswick mountain was winched to safety by helicopter during a remarkable rescue at the weekend.
On Saturday night, a HM Coastguard air crew from Prestwick near Glasgow, was drafted in by Keswick Mountain Rescue Team just before 9.30pm due to the “treacherous” terrain making a stretcher evacuation dangerous.
Part of a family of four, she had become separated near the summit of 2,864ft Blencathra and then fell and injured her knee and cut her head.
The helicopter located her in the beam of its powerful searchlight and directed team members to the scene via radio.
A Keswick MRT spokesman said: “With some remarkable flying skills the search and rescue crew positioned their aircraft above the casualty site, lowered their winch man and lifted the casualty into the aircraft which then flew to the Crow Park landing site in Keswick to be reunited with her family.”
The skill of the air crew and the efforts of volunteer mountain rescuers, who had a busy weekend, has seen praise pour in from eyewitnesses who described the scene as “incredible and amazing”.
Keswick MRT’s Facebook post generated more than 2,000 likes and in excess of 250 comments in response – with most likening the picture of the helicopter to the Starship Enterprise, the ship in iconic TV series Star Trek.
Cumbria police and Keswick Mountain Rescue Team had been alerted just before 8.30pm, with the victim able to pinpoint her position as between between Hall’s Fell and neighbouring Doddick Fell.
To do so accurately, she used innovative what3words technology accessible via mobile phone.
What3words sees each three-metre square in the world assigned with a unique and random three word address that never changes.
Hailed as more precise than a postcode, people simply use their phones to find the three words associated with their exact location using a free app.
The peak of Blencathra itself has the words reclining.nightfall.founding as its address.
A what3words spokesman said: “Not being able to easily describe where help is needed can be very distressing for the caller, and makes it difficult for emergency services.
“While not intended as a replacement for map reading skills and being adequately prepared, we are proud that what3words has become one of the tools that services across the UK are using to save responders precious time in an emergency.”
On the night, the mountain rescue team split into two with a small group heading along steep Hall’s Fell Ridge in case the location was inaccurate, and the remaining members making their way up the bed of Doddick Gill.
The incident saw 15 team volunteer members occupied for more than three-and-a-half hours and was completed at midnight.
A spokesman for HM Coastguard confirmed that its rescue helicopter located and extracted the casualty and passed them into the care of the MRT.
