Injured mountain biker airlifted to hospital in video of Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance and Tayside and Police Scotland mountain rescue teams

Training exercise in Glenshee becomes the real thing

The skill of mountain rescuers and an air ambulance crew has been vividly demonstrated in this dramatic video footage filmed by The Scotsman of an injured cyclist being airlifted to hospital from a remote Perthshire glen.

The mountain biker, believed to be in his 60s, suffered a broken collarbone and suspected fractured ribs when he fell during the two-day Lezyne Cateran Dirt Dash bikepacking event on Sunday near Finegand in the lower part of Glenshee.

A total of 24 members of the Tayside Mountain Rescue team and the Police Scotland Mountain Rescue Team (Tayside) were involved in the rescue, in which the casualty was lifted by stretcher through a small opening in a fence to one of Scotland’s two Charity Air Ambulances (SCAA), which had managed to land on the edge of in a nearby field.

The injured cyclist being treated by mountain rescue teams before being airlifted to hospital. (Photo by Alastair Dalton/The Scotsman)

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The teams were alerted to the incident while on a joint exercise further up the glen in which they were practising a search for a missing mountain biker.

A SCAA spokesperson said: “Our helicopter based at Perth Airport landed at a fairly inaccessible site close to the injured cyclist and treated him at the scene with mountain rescue team colleagues before airlifting him to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.”

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The Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance aircraft landing for the rescue. (Photo by Alastair Dalton/The Scotsman)

The SCAA, which was launched ten years ago and also has a helicopter based in Aberdeen, was called in because of its proximity to the scene, 15 minutes flying time away.

The Dirt Dash involved 50 riders covering a 50-mile circular section of the Cateran Trail between Alyth and Spittal of Glenshee.