Royal Navy HMS Gannet rescues six people in a week

HMS Gannet was called to help climbers on Ben Nevis and in the Lake District

A search and rescue crew rescued six people in the first week of the year, the Royal Navy has confirmed.

Prestwick-based HMS Gannet helicopter team had seven call outs between 3 and 10 January, covering western Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Lake District.

On Saturday it was scrambled to rescue two French climbers on Ben Nevis. Three hours later the crew flew to the Lake District to help another climber.

The Royal Navy said the rescues were completed with 13 hours of flying time.

The call outs included taking road and boat accident casualties to hospital and searching for missing people in Northern Ireland.

Over the Christmas week the crew was called out to six separate incidents including one on Christmas day and two on Boxing Day.

A Royal Navy spokeswoman said the following week, 27 December 2010 to 2 January, was "eerily quiet", but team were "pushed hard" in the first full week of 2011.

In 2009, HMS Gannet carried out 447 call outs, rescuing 378 people, giving it the busiest ever year for a UK search and rescue helicopter team.