Pilot lands top award for daring air rescue
A Scottish helicopter pilot has received a prestigious national award for the part he played in an emergency rescue this summer.
Gavin Rowley, 53, from Drymen, who works with Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA), has been named Air Ambulance Pilot of the Year in the National Association of Air Ambulances’ awards.
Due to poor visibility the dad-of-five used his local knowledge of the weather to find an alternative route to a remote house in Glen Kinglass in Argyll in June.
His team, including paramedics, rescued a man who had suffered a heart attack, flying him by helicopter to the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Glasgow.
Gavin, who is employed by Babcock Mission Critical Services, realised they weren’t going to get through the mountains so he took the helicopter up to 5,000ft and flew through the cloud.
Gavin said: “I thought we’d find a way out near Oban which is what we did and then we flew up the glen to the patient.
“We beat the ambulance, arriving in 55 minutes.
“This rescue was only possible because the charity provides us with an excellent helicopter and we’re trained to use it to its full capability.
“We wouldn’t have got this award without the efforts of all the charity workers and fundraisers.”