A DARING mountain rescue mission in "treacherous" conditions has led to a commendation for a local airman.
Former Tollbar pupil David Prochera-Best, 39, was awarded the commendation yesterday for his actions during the rescue of a group of stranded climbers from the Idwall Slabs mountain in the Snowdonia region of Wales.
The RAF Flight Lieutenant, who is a colleague of Prince William, and, as reported, was a guest at his marriage to Kate Middleton in April 2011, was the co-pilot during the dangerous mission.
The crew had little information when they were scrambled to the scene to help the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team on the afternoon of July 31.
All they knew was that four male climbers were clinging to the side of the mountain.
But due to low cloud and winds breaking 30 knots the rescue was anything but ordinary.
Flt Lt Prochera-Best, who is based at RAF Valley in Anglesey, told the Telegraph: "On this mission I was the co-pilot, which normally means just assisting with spotting and guiding, but due to the weather conditions we were forced to reverse the position of the helicopter in relation to the mountainside, meaning I was solely responsible for flying and maintaining a level machine for the crew to work with.
"The winch operator normally helps guide the rear rotor blades, but because the helicopter was facing the opposite way, I was doing this while flying. The average distance of the rear blades from the mountain was 5 feet."
On top of maintaining the helicopter a safe distance from the mountainside, Flt Lt Prochera-Best had to use all 245ft of cable available during winch man, Sergeant David McDowell's descent to the stranded walkers.
He said: "Any slight movement would have meant a huge movement for the men below being winched to safety."
David managed to keep a steady hand and successfully enabled his winch man to be lowered to the men. However, his worst fears were soon realised when it became clear one of the men had fallen and died.
"At this point our priority became rescuing the survivors and getting them to safety." David said.
"Any death is incredibly unfortunate, but to maintain the lives of those still stranded, you have to dig deep and focus on the job at hand."
After holding the helicopter in a precarious position for more than 30 minutes, the three survivors were safely aboard and transported to the local mountain rescue base before being rushed to hospital.
He described how surprised he was by the commendation.
"This is our job," he said. "We work to rescue people and not for the commendations. We take part in rescues all the time so we really didn't expect anything extra.
"This wouldn't have been possible without the amazing work of my crew, Flt Lt Matt Thompson, Sgt Martin Seward and Sgt Dave McDowell."
Squadron Leader Alex Brassington, who wrote the commendation, said: "He went above and beyond the flying skills required of an operator of this aircraft."
RAF Valley and their efforts will be the focus of a BBC2 episode of Helicopter Rescue in February.
