What do you do if you break a leg in Russia? Call for help 4,500 miles away

Published on Saturday 6 September 2008 00:24

A BRITISH student was airlifted to safety after breaking her leg on a remote Russian peninsula – after her distress signal was picked up by Scottish rescuers 4,500 miles away.

Kimberley Warren fell off her horse during a research trip in the Kamchatka region in the far east of the country.

She set off an emergency distress beacon, and it was picked up by RAF Kinloss, on the other side of the globe in Moray.

Controllers there alerted their Russian counterparts and Miss Warren, a 20-year-old zoology student from Nottingham University, was airlifted to hospital in an operation hampered by very bad weather.

The second-year student, from Hampshire, was flown to Esso village, some 25 miles from where she fell. She was to be transferred to a hospital in the town of Petro Pavlosk yesterday for further treatment.

Miss Warren was among a party of nine from the university who were nearing the end of a visit to investigate the effects of global warming in the Kamchatka Nature Park.

The group was nearly 20 miles from its base camp when the accident happened.

A spokesman for Nottingham University said: "Kimberley is safe and, while her injuries are likely to be uncomfortable, they are not life-threatening."

Flight Sergeant Tim Dickinson, the rescue co-ordinator at RAF Kinloss, said the alarm had been raised at 10pm on Thursday.

Because the beacon was registered at Kinloss, the UK Mission Control Centre dealt with the incident and looked up its owner on its database.

Flt Sgt Dickinson said: "The owner turned out to be one of the leaders of a Nottingham University group.

"There are nine people in Kamchatka Nature Park. They are in a very, very rural and remote part of Kamchatka where they are conducting biological research.

"We contacted a family member and then spoke to our Russian counterparts and they initiated a rescue.

"Somehow they have managed to speak to the group and it was a woman who has broken her leg by falling off a horse."

He went on: "The rescue is being carried out quite literally on the other side of the world through co-operation between the RAF search and rescue services and the Russian search and rescue authorities. It's great to know that search and rescue has no boundaries."

Corporal Keri Richmond, at the Kinloss base, said: "The expedition has been well planned and the emergency beacon was registered on the UK database so that we could act on the information straight away."

Miss Warren was part of a team of researchers led by Dr Markus Eichhorn, an ecology lecturer, who were looking into the effects of global warming on natural habitats.

The group has spent the past two months camping in an area that is home to the northern hemisphere's largest active volcano.

Wolves, grizzly bears and Arctic foxes live in the region, which was opened to foreigners only in 1990 after being declared a military zone following the Second World War.

The expedition is being supported by the Royal Geographical Society and the British Ecological Society.

Miss Warren said before she went on the trip that she planned to use tracks and traps to look for signs of mammals living in the area. In her online biography for the expedition's website, she said she was president of her university's rock music society and enjoyed rugby, martial arts and reading.

Her mother, Liz Warren, said: "Kimberley has had a fabulous time on this trip.

"From her e-mails, we know it has been hard work, the field work has been tough, but she's loved every minute.

"It's confirmed to her that this is what she wants to do with her life.

"As parents, all we want to do is get her home and give her a big hug."

The Kamchatka peninsula was the scene of another dramatic rescue three years ago – this time involving a submarine. A Scottish-based Royal Navy team released seven Russian sailors trapped 600ft down in the Pacific.