Kielder Forest

At 19.04hrs Northumbria Police sent a PhoneFind for two teenagers who were lost in Kielder Forest on a bike ride. Despite the poor mobile reception in the area, a location fix was established which placed the teenagers on North Haul Road, approximately 1.5km from Kielder village. A relatively straightforward incident to resolve or so we thought!

Unfortunately, when we tried to ring the two teenagers, the call wasn’t connecting. Given the inability to establish communication with the teenagers and the fading light, a limited response was initiated. Three 4×4 response vehicles from North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team and ourselves were deployed from Pegswood, Rothbury and West Denton. Two vehicles were tasked to drive the North Haul Road from either end, checking the PhoneFind location on the way, and the other vehicle was to establish a control point and liaise with the teenager’s father at the Kielder dam north car park. Other members from both Mountain Rescue Teams were put on standby in case the incident escalated.

Thankfully as one of our response vehicles was driving the North Haul Road past the location of the PhoneFind fix, the father re-contacted our Incident Commander to inform him that the two teenagers had found their way back to the family’s vehicle at the north dam car park. While the other two vehicles were stood down, our response vehicle on the North Haul Road was directed to liaise with the family to confirm everyone was safe and well.

The father was relieved and very grateful for our efforts. A good outcome all round.

The incident involved 6 Team members for 2 hours 55 minutes.