HMS Gannet, the Royal Navy base at Prestwick in Scotland, is the UK’s busiest helicopter search and rescue unit.
Lieutenant Johnny Green, was one of the four-man search and rescue aircrew ready to spring into action on Christmas Day.
The former student of St John’s Primary and Sunnydale Comprehensive School in Shildon and his crew will be airborne within 15 minutes during the day and 45 at night to respond to emergencies.
All the aircrew are full-time Navy or Royal Marines personnel who bring years of cool-headed bravery, experience and skill to their search and rescue duties.
Johnny joined the Royal Navy in 1998 as a pilot trainee immediately after completing A-Levels at school. During his time in the Senior Service he has served in the Gulf on HMS Boxer, the Mediterranean on HMS Ark Royal, again in the Med and Northern Europe with HMS Cornwall, in the USA on board HMS Invincible and in Afghanistan.
“We never know what we’re going to encounter when we report for duty,” he said. “Even what appears to be the simplest of jobs can turn out to be particularly challenging – and, in this part of the world, that’s usually due to weather conditions and some fairly difficult terrain.
Covering an area of 98,000 square miles, which stretches from the Lake District in the south to Ben Nevis in the north, Edinburgh and Dundee in the east to Scotland’s west coast highlands and island, as well as Northern Ireland, and 200 miles out into the Atlantic Gannet’s crew never knows where the next flight will take it.
As well as the duty crews, there will be 14 engineers covering the two shifts, as well as a meteorological forecaster and an operations manager.
Johnny will be returning to County Durham after Christmas to have a belated festive celebration on December 29th with his Mum and Dad, John and Susan, who live in Newton Aycliffe.
