PRESTWICK’S helicopter search and rescue base was the busiest in the last three months of 2017, according to a new report.

Figures released by the Department for Transport revealed that the Prestwick base responded to 75 callouts and rescued 53 people – showing it to be the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s (MCA) most responsive base between October and December.

The statistics also showed that Prestwick, along with Inverness, Stornoway and Sumburgh, rescued 42 per cent of all people who were helped by the MCA’s helicopter bases.

It was acknowledged in the report that there were 523 civilian search and rescue (SAR) helicopter taskings and 329 people rescued across the UK – and on average, SAR helicopters responded to six tasking a day during the latest quarter.

Adding to the report, it states: “81 taskings that took place in mountainous areas – in particular Loch Lomand and the Trossachs National Park and the Cairngorms – accounted for 15 per cent of all the taskings and 80 per cent of those rescue missions were carried out by the Prestwick and Inverness bases.”

Furthermore, in a breakdown of taskings by location type, the majority of Prestwick’s bases recue missions were classed as ‘other’, which would be seen as taskings at inland waterways, oil platforms, wind farms, aeronautical and medical centres, and the ‘beach’ category was seen to be the least amount of rescues carried out by the Prestwick base, which includes areas on a beach, cliff face, base or top.