Both Aberdeen lifeboats launched shortly after 8pm this evening, Tuesday 11 September, responding to a request from HM Coastguard to assist an injured person on the coast just south of the Ythan Estuary.
A female was reported to have fallen from her horse while riding on the beach.
Aberdeen’s inshore lifeboat (ILB) met members of Aberdeen Coastguard Rescue Team on scene and made a provisional assessment of the casualty. The ILB then met the all-weather lifeboat a short distance offshore to ferry a doctor – a volunteer member of the lifeboat crew – to shore to assess and assist the casualty further. The RNLI doctor’s recommendation was that the safest precautionary means of extracting the casualty would be by helicopter, leading to Inverness-based Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 951 being tasked to the scene.
Meantime, the Scottish Ambulance Service Special Operations Rescue Team (SORT) arrived on scene and moved the casualty, using their specialist Polaris all-terrain ambulance, to an accessible helicopter landing site.
Rescue 951 rendezvoused with the SORT ambulance to transfer the injured woman to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
The lifeboats returned to Aberdeen Lifeboat Station to refuel ready for next service at around 11.30pm
Aberdeen Lifeboat coxswain Davie Orr says: “This was a challenging rescue calling for co-operation between a number of search and rescue assets: Aberdeen’s two lifeboats, Aberdeen & Cruden Bay Coastguard Rescue Teams, Scottish Ambulance SORT Team and Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 951 - all co-ordinated by Aberdeen Coastguard Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Aberdeen.”
Any enquiries concerning the condition of the casualty should be referred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
