River Rescue

On Saturday 9th October at 0700hrs, our 24hr Operations center received a call for help from Green Flag breakdown services. An 8 seater people carrier had slide down an embankment and was caught up in the current, drifting down a ravine. Local recovery firms were unable to assist, so we gathered up our specialist dive and recovery team and deployed to this emergency rescue. The team took a 4x4 winching unit, 12 foot outboard dinghy and crane equipped recovery unit aswell as Commercial diver Mickey James. The vehicle submerged in the water was a Nissan Elgrand and apart from the area being surrounded by marsh land and farms, it was moving with the current. Time was an important factor and the team set of from Stoke on Trent with haste.

Once on scene, the situation was assessed by incident Manager Gary Stone and Lee Mansfield. There was no way to get our crane equipped recovery unit close due to the isolated location and farm land leading upto the river. After some negotiation with a very nice farmer, we were granted access across his land and were able to use some of his machinery to assist in the rescue.

Wet suits were adoned to enter the water and get access to the vehicle. With strapping secured it was no time at all before the Nissan Elgrand was winched out of the water and lifted onto dry land.

The casualty vehicle was then recovered back to a local garage and after another successful mission our team headed back to Stoke to dry off.