Ingram Valley

Incident Type: Search

Northumbria Police activated ourselves and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team to help locate a male who had called 999, indicating he was lost in the Ingram valley. The connection then dropped out and the Police were unable to callback.

With limited information available, a measured response was implemented. A PhoneFind was sent to the male’s mobile phone, however, the text was not initially delivered suggesting the phone was out of signal, had been turned off or had died. Voicemail messages were also left by the Mountain Rescue’s incident command. Local resources and two 4×4 response vehicles were deployed to Ingram with the priority being to ascertain whether there were any unattended vehicles in the Breamish valley. A single vehicle was located in the valley, near to Greensidehill, which at this stage gave the Teams a potential initial planning point for a search.

The incident soon escalated with a full callout of both Mountain Rescue Teams, including search dog and drone capability, and the National Police Air Service (NPAS) was also requested and duly authorised. As volunteers arrived at the RVP, hill groups were deployed to search the main walking routes in the area.

As more volunteers arrived, further information came to light. First two campers who were further up the valley rang the Police to say they’d observed the NPAS helicopter and wondered what was happening. They were able to confirm that it was their car in the valley. Then soon after as search plans were being reconsidered, the PhoneFind text was delivered to the missing person’s phone indicating the phone had a network connection again. A call was immediately made to missing person and on answering, they confirmed ‘all was well and that they were safely back at home’.

Mountain Rescue volunteers out on the hill returned to the RVP at Ingram bridge before everyone headed home in the early hours of the morning for some much needed sleep!

The incident involved 30 Team members for 4 hours and 28 minutes.