Major Mike Devereux

Thick fog put the dampener on a planned reunion of a helicopter pilot with his former mountain rescue colleagues.

Royal Marine officer Major Mike Devereux was due to fly south from the Royal Navy base at HMS Gannet in Ayrshire at the weekend for a training exercise with the Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team in the Lake District.

The major was a volunteer member of the team while undergoing teacher training between 1992 and 1995.

He was due to receive a commemorative book and DVD marking the rescue team’s 40th anniversary. But heavy fog in Ayrshire on Saturday led to the postponement of the Royal Navy helicopter’s planned exercise, though it remained on standby for emergencies.

Major Devereux, now HMS Gannet’s second in command, said: “Obviously it’s rather disappointing. But we will find a new date in the diary for the training. I volunteered for more than three years with LAMRT and was delighted to be able to help people who had got into trouble on the mountains.”

HMS Gannet’s commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Debdash Bhattacharya added: “I, too, should have been flying with Mike and the rest of the team on Saturday, but, unfortunately, Prestwick was blanketed in thick fog and we were unable to leave base for training.

“Fog-bound days are extremely rare at Prestwick and it was bad luck it happened on this particular occasion.

“Our rescue response, however, remained unaffected – in other words, had there been an emergency call out, we would still have attended, but training is not considered part of emergency response and it is for this reason that we were unable to make it to the Lakes.”

The training day and Major Devereux’s presentation are expected to be rearranged in the near future.