A man who had fallen and broken his leg had to be airlifted from a rock ledge on the Purbeck coastline due to the inaccessible location.
Multi-agency emergency teams were called to Dancing Ledge near Langton Matravers in Dorset at about 4.45 pm on Thursday 15th June 2023.
The RNLI, coastguard and police all went to assist the injured man
Multi-agency emergency response
The rescue involved the Swanage and St Albans Coastguard teams, Purbeck Police, both Swanage RNLI lifeboats, the South Western Ambulance service, as well as the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.
Purbeck Police reported:
“The Swanage team attended Dancing Ledge to assist our ambulance and coastguard colleagues with the rescue of a male with a broken leg at the bottom of the ledge.
“Rowena, our Yamaha Rhino ATV was used to help transport the medical kit to the location of the incident.”
The air ambulance approaches Dancing Ledge, a popular place for climbers and walkers
The helicopter makes the tricky landing onto the rock ledge next to the cliffs
Air ambulance landed on Dancing Ledge
The Swanage Lifeboat crew also responded to the emergency as its boats could reach the casualty from the sea.
Swanage Lifeboat Station reported:
“The lifeboats launched and were on the scene 10 minutes later. On arrival they found that the Dorset and Somerset air ambulance had been able to land on Dancing Ledge and their medics were attending the casualty.”
The steep cliff pathway down to Dancing Ledge makes it difficult to access by vehicle
Rowena, Purbeck Police’s off-road buggy was used to transport medical kit
Man was transferred to a waiting ambulance
Two lifeboat crew members went ashore and assisted in carrying the injured man to the air ambulance.
Once the casualty was secured in the helicopter, it took off from Dancing Ledge.
It then landed a short distance away in a field, where an ambulance was waiting to take the man to hospital.
The air ambulance lifted the injured man from the rock ledge to a nearby field where an ambulance was able to transport him to hospital
