Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service

16/03/2026

25/06/2025

Over the last two weeks, personnel from all three RAF Mountain Rescue Teams have come together in North Wales to attend the RAF MRS Summer Mountaineering Course. This course develops climbing and scrambling skills and confidence on steep ground. All personnel made significant progress in their training towards MRS Awards and in readiness for SAR Ops

10/06/2025

Did you spot us on Sunday? RAF Cosford Air Show 2025 RAF Cosford Air Show (Official) RAF Cosford

25/03/2025

"The RAF Mountain Rescue Service is deeply saddened to hear of the death of Dave “Heavy” Whalley. Heavy dedicated over 35 years of his life to rescuing those in danger on the mountains of the UK and was pivotal to the success of several high-profile Aircraft Crash Operations including the Lockerbie Air Disaster. He was passionate about mountaineering and about Mountain Rescue and his stories of long and dangerous rescues, and of days training in the mountains, inspired so many us. A true legend who will be missed by all that knew him".

09/01/2025

It has been a very busy festive period for the MRS carrying out training in arduous winter conditions. RAF Valley MRT and RAF Lossiemouth MRT provided duty teams for Christmas and New Year respectively. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all members of the MRS who gave up their time with loved ones to be on call for Search and Rescue and Aircraft Post-Crash Incident Management.

20/11/2024

RAF Valley MRT conducted joint training with Aberglaslyn Mountain Rescue Team and Search and Rescue Dog Association SARDA Wales. The teams conducted a simulated callout for 4 casualties injured in difficult ground. This gave the teams a chance to train technical rescue and medical skills on challenging terrain. This training is essential to increasing interoperability between Mountain Rescue Teams and invaluable for sharing knowledge and methodology.

11/11/2024

Members of Leeming MRT attended the remembrance service held at Great Gable on Sunday. They took part in the national 2-minute silence at 11:00 to remember all the lives lost to war.

06/09/2024

Photos from last weekend, of members of the RAF Lossiemouth MRT training with a HM Coastguard 151 from Inverness.

This training maintains the capability for the teams to operate safely and effectively alongside the Coastguard assets.

06/08/2024

05/08/2024

20/05/2024

Incident No.50 on 9th & 10th May
Type: Full Callout
Location: Scafell Massif
Start: 00:28 on 9th
Finish: 16:17 on 10th
Duration: 39h 49m
Weather: Dry, clear, sunny. Misty on morning of 9th.
Teams involved: 31 Wasdale MRT, Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team, Keswick Mountain Rescue Team Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team (LAMRT), Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team, Coniston Mountain Rescue Team, Kendal Mountain Search & Rescue Team, Kirkby Stephen Mountain Rescue Team, Penrith Mountain Rescue Team, Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team, Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service Leeming, Lake District Mountain Rescue Searchdogs, Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England, SARDA Scotland, SARDA Southern Scotland, Lake District Search And Mountain Rescue Association - LDSAMRA drones, Maritime and Coastguard Agency Rescue 199
Grid Reference: None

A call was received very early on Thursday morning about a lone male walker who had not made contact after a walk from Seathwaite towards Scafell Pike. He was reported overdue.

The Team Leader gathered further information through the night and called out the Wasdale team along with Keswick MRT, Duddon and Furness MRT and Langdale Ambleside MRT for early morning searches. After these were deployed, a second phase of searches was then planned with requests for resources from all other Lake District teams. Search dogs, drones and Coastguard helicopter Rescue 199 were also tasked in specific areas.

Despite this, at the end of Thursday, the walker was not found, and plans were made for a similar effort with more detailed searches on Friday.

Tragically, a find was made later that morning. Sadly he had not survived.

Our sincere condolences go to the walker’s family and friends. Our thoughts are with you all.

Thanks to all that supported this significant multi agency team effort. We are very grateful for the help.