On Sunday 1st December 2013 the team were tasked to carry out a joint search along with other agencies in the Strathpeffer area of Easter Ross for a missing person.
The search team was a mix of Torridon, Dundonell, Asynt and Kintail MRT’s along with SARDA North Scotland, Police Scotland search dogs and Police Scotland personnel. In total there was 55 searchers and 17 of them were from Torridon MRT which was a fantastic team turn out. We departed Torridon base at 07:30 on Sunday morning with the team mini bus and land rover and up lifted MRT en route. All searchers were briefed by Police Scotland personnel and the Dundonell team leader at 9am as the search was on Dundonell’s patch. Once briefed we departed the community centre and drove half a mile to our first search area. We commenced a line search with a total of 25 MRT personnel through very thick woodland, this proved tricky as visiblity was poor but we kept a very regimental line by using our MRT radios at either end of the search to keep a good line order. Once out of the wood we searched open clear fell which was full of old tree stumps and trunks and the odd hidden ditch or hole, this proved hard under foot but we covered all of the area pretty well. We then went back in to the woodland for another search to finish of the morning tasking then we broke for lunch. A very good soup and sandwich lunch was provided which was a good re fuel for the afternoon search. Once we had all had lunch it was back out to a new search area which consisted of searching another thick woodland, this was to be our final search area which we completed just before darkness fell. Unfortunately after good strong searches and great team efforts by all MRT and Police Scotland personnel nothing was found. Even though nothing was found as always it was a pleasure to be part of a good strong team effort by all involved and great to see different agencies working well alongside each other.
Ryan Maclean
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