Major Devereux meets a colleague from the Langdale and Ambleside MRT during a return visit
A former volunteer member of a Lake District mountain rescue team will now take charge of airborne rescue missions.
Royal Marines pilot Major Mike Devereux has qualified as an aircraft commander of the Royal Navy’s Sea King search and rescue helicopters based at HMS Gannet in Ayrshire.
The base is the busiest helicopter rescue base in the UK and about half its callouts are to mountain incidents.
Major Devereux is no stranger to mountain rescue, having served as a member of Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team, with which he was recently reunited during a visit. He served with the team after leaving school on Merseyside, while studying to be a teacher at Charlotte Mason College in the Lake District.
As an aircraft captain, he will now be in overall charge of the Mark 5 Sea King helicopters used during an emergency callout, as well as the crew of four on board.
The 38-year-old said: “I have been a pilot with the Royal Marines and Royal Navy for 12 years.
“Although it is true that in search and rescue you do not face the threat of enemy gunfire as you may on the frontline, it is instead the conditions and landscape which become a veritable foe that cannot be underestimated.
“As aircraft commander I have to ensure that my crew and equipment match up to whatever is thrown at us – ultimately it is my call as to how hard we push in whatever the conditions dish up and it is a responsibility I take very seriously.”
The aircraft commander makes the operational decisions of deployment of the aircraft, ensuring the safe and efficient conduct of the search and rescue mission whilst minimising the risks to aircraft, crew and casualties, to make sure a casualty gets rapid and effective medical attention.
The Royal Navy’s rescue Sea Kings cover 98,000 sq miles (253,800 sq km) of northern England, western Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Major Devereux joined the Royal Marines in 1995 and was based in Arbroath, Faslane and Lympstone, before transferring to aviation in 1999.
He began his flying training at Cranwell and Shawbury before moving to Yeovilton with 847 Squadron, then on to staff work with Director Army Aviation at Middle Wallop.
His career then took him to Joint Helicopter Command before moving on to SAR at HMS Gannet. His next job will take him back to Yeovilton, in a flight safety role.
