9. It's Eckleston Road at Kandle. On the outskirts of Sheffield, a drug addict on a stolen motorbike is desperately trying to escape from the police. He's got so many drugs on him that he'll be charged with possession if caught. He doesn't know he's being tracked by South Yorkshire's police helicopter. Call sign Yankee 999. Can we have officers please to bottom of Fair Le in front of the green shutter in but this is no ordinary motorbike. It's built for racing on a track. The junkie knows the police on the ground can't follow him. Cali golf 6 just towards the other side of right um over in the 2:00 the officers uh he's actually gone through the crossing now but he's been outsmarted by the crew of Yankee 99 they've managed to get a ground cop ahead of him X99. The driver's just run off. He's heading towards Fiber on the fields of But the officer is no match for this runner. Once again, the helicopter crew have a trick or two up their sleeves. The helicopter is going to hover low enough so that the pilot can drop off two officers who will try and arrest the running man. A surprised and now subdued drug addict is in handcuffs tonight. Out and running, the Sky Cops stay one step ahead of youths who think they can outwit the helicopter. Yeah, Gary's hiding in there. They're rather shocked. [Music] 10:00 a.m. Sheffield airport, home to South Yorkshire's police helicopter call sign Sierra Yankee 99. Today the sky cops are working a tactic which allows them to catch more criminals red-handed. It's called hover deplaning. What I'd like to do fellas is uh to run through and have a practice of the hover deplaning. So scenario would be that we want to deploy one of the observers from the aircraft. Why do we hover plane? um simply uh you've got an area where you um think it unwise to land, maybe soft ground, rough ground, sloping ground, uneven uh tall crops in a in a farmer's field. You don't know how far you're going to sink into it. And of course, there lots of very expensive equipment underneath the aircraft. [Music] Jumping out the back today is PC Cook. [Music] Was a bit uh wary initially the first time I did it. Um and you're aware of your training um before you do it that you you've got everything in place um so you don't mess up. There's an element of danger there if you weren't adequately trained. Right. Yep. Okay. and circuiting. Some people may perceive it as a glamorous job, but certainly it's not glamorous. I wouldn't say it's it's quite hard work today. The hard work and Captain Hail are making PC Cook very nervous. I often tease the rest of the crew. I tell them I won't make it too high because sometimes it's quite a few feet they have to free fall down through. Okay, so stand by. [Applause] Quite a few feet in an ideal world means less than a meter. Ready to go when you are. Okay. When you do one and prepared to jump, you want to make sure that you're dropping down as opposed to jumping up. You're well forward of the aircraft and well clear of the blades. PC Cook is well clear of the blades. Felt like jumping off a wall. It certainly focused the mind. Yeah, the drop was rather further than he'd expected. Get a bit lower so he can physically get in. Get there. They're going to have to be quick. 99 is needed elsewhere. XS XS to Sier 99 relation to offra motorcyclists in the park. Got report of three in the area causing a danger to other members of the public. Right, they finished them. Back to the pen. Yeah, back to the P. Okay. 99 needs more fuel. PC Cook is now a happy man despite his brush with the long grass. [Music] Sorry, I'm just saying the grass is a lot longer than Was the uh the pickup height about the right height then? Yeah, pick was uh right. Can't believe we got paid for this. You love it. We don't do it that often, but when we do, it needs to be right. The bikers will have to be dealt with later. There is a more urgent mission. 99 to thank you. It's to ascertain if you're available to assist in an area search. Got reports of an 8-year-old male that's been missing for the past 2 hours. PC Lucas is taking PC Cook's place in 99. [Music] And more details about the missing boy have come in. He's got special needs. We got a call to say that an 8-year-old lad who uh had got ADHD, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Um had gone missing from home and hadn't been seen for 2 hours. Right. So up the motorway. Yeah. just drew off basically set of bombs like the weather is turning nasty. Severe thunderstorms are forecast and the crew know it. And it's very uh dark looking weather coming in from the west where we're going to be heading north. Thunderstorms, lightning, and high winds. The weather combination air crews fear most. There was a storm brewing as they say. Um, so concern for this lad's well-being was uh getting quite bad. Wind indicators in the aircraft suggested that it was coming our way. Obviously with with any task of that nature, then always come and have a look. In addition to that, the last time he was found, it was believed to be at his uh other grandma. Uh having flown for 30 35 years plus and uh with some 10,000 flying hours, one thing I have an enormous respect for is thunderstorms. you uh you treat them very very seriously. 11:00. Yeah. If you look over there for more than about 10 seconds, you'll see some lighting. Yeah. I'd say at least 10 to 15 miles away at the moment. Coming this way at about 25 knots. To me, it seemed all of a sudden very close. you're sat inside an aircraft which is made of metal generating all sorts of static with the rotors turning uh and you feel like you're just sat inside a huge lightning conductor and that if one comes in the right direction you you're going to get it worth to haul off missing out we are a good target weract energy. A strike could be uh uh anywhere from exciting to disastrous. We're just about here. 6 mile. Captain Hail is determined. They must keep looking for the little boy. So, come around again on the five. You got the roundabout. Yeah. Some streets just to the left of that pile over streets. Yeah. With white vans on it. Yeah. Okay. That's where I was last seen. Right. As we came out of the second orbit, there was uh a lightning strike to the ground rather closer than I would have preferred. That's when the wind really kicked in and it went from 10 knots to 40 45 knots. So, I knew we were right on the edge of the thunderstorm cell that was closest to us. Not far away. We're up to 40 knots. Yeah, there it is. It's getting very close. We're going to break off. I'm backing off. Okay. Well, if you see the child is still outstanding. This dramatic increase in wind speed is the final straw. Unfortunately for the task and and for the family of this lad, we weren't able to offer any further assistance. We had to go uh because at the end of the day um we're no use to anybody if uh if we're hit by lightning. Bravo control from taking away. Yeah, 99. We've got lightning coming down around us. Uh we're leaving the area. That's uh very good Jason. Only Captain Hail has experienced this sort of weather before and even he is concerned about the combination of lightning bolts and gale force winds. We went up to the the maximum speed u which is 140 knots 150 mph plus if you like. Uh and of course we had the tailwind as well. So we're over the ground. We're approaching 200 mph. Yeah, we're going to kind of skirt around it. When we were just going around the hover there, it's ging up to 40 knots. We're just on the edge of the down thrust from probably up to about 25,000 ft behind us here. Amazing. Captain Hail might find it amazing. His fellow crew members are just plain scared. Doug was very calm about it. I could tell, but you could also tell with the things he was saying that although he's coming across calm, he he was starting to think that it was becoming an issue for us. The reassuring tone came on and let's just talk through what's happening here. As a as a tip, I would put that down and anything metal you don't need to be touching. I wouldn't touch. Okay. I suggested he removed the rather large metal control sitting between his legs cuz if we were struck then yeah that could give him a bit of a shock. As soon as he said that I was only too happy to do that because if we' have been struck I might have had several thousand volts running up my arm. So it went straight onto the floor and kicked it away with my feet. Now further just be advised you have got some quite severe weather coming in. The storm is getting even closer. leading edge of this storm actually caught up and we were getting these huge gusts of wind uh hitting us from from the rear and from the side and bouncing the aircraft all over the place. And as soon as we started feeling those, it was at that point that the lightning started coming around us, dragging us about. Captain Hail intends to run for home. A fast landing, no refueling. There won't be another job until the lightning has passed. Oh, that's a nice one. I felt it was just a matter of time and if we didn't get down there quickly that we we were going to get hit. It was that close. And there's just that thought in your mind that the next one might be might be for you. [Music] Thank you, D. Hey, how you going? Roger. As soon as he gave the nod, I I didn't need to tell him twice and I was out of there. It's definitely the most scared I've been whilst I've been in the aircraft. You try and act calm in in there. You know, there's a bit of bravado that I'm a roughy tuy bobby and nothing can scare me. But I'll I'll be honest about it. I was more than happy when we were back on the ground and I was out of there. Once we were on the deck, I was really quite comfortable. looking forward to a mug of tea. We uh we all take our turn at making tea, even the pilots, which is a good thing. It's part of the bonding process. I think it's thirsty work. Um there's lots of talking and uh speaking to officers on the ground on the radio. So, uh just tend to be dry mouth and get back. You really want a cup of tea. The rain is almost tropical. Bad news for the Sky Cops, but good news for a bunch of Sheffield school children who just happen to be visiting the unit today. This is a helicopter. It's an American helicopter. It's called an MD902 Explorer. Okay. Brilliant. This aircraft, there's bits and pieces from all over the world on there. So, such as we've got gear boxes from Japan, we've got a camera system that's from Canada. We've got a a kind of a GPS navigation system in there that's from Germany. Then we've got observers inside there that are from England and they're the most important bit of all obviously. Flight 142 minutes. Meanwhile, in the cruise quarters, Captain Hail is ramming home the dangers of thunder and lightning by making everyone watch a horror story. In fact, there are the city lights straight there. You want to go down? Not yet, but pretty soon. This news footage shows the storm on the night of the crash as heavy rain cuts visibility even further. Captain Bushman is getting frustrated. Before I start then, does anybody got any questions? Yeah. What are these? I knew it. That's why I asked you this one while I stood here. I knew you were going to ask me that one. What are these? What do you think they are? Fire comes out. Fire comes out. It sounds much more exciting. Guns. That's the one that we usually get. Missiles. Are they machine guns? They're not machine guns. These things quite boring actually. And as we're flying along, air goes up the holes and it goes into a little computer inside there and it tells the pilot how fast we're going. They're heading straight into the heart of a thunderstorm. The crisis for flight 1420 is about to get even worse. Damn, we're off course. I can't see it. Way off. I I can't see anything. There was fire. This is unbelievable, isn't it? We just sat watched this. I've seen it about 20 times and I get really angry every time I see it. What were those two pilots doing? Two professional aviators. You saw this scenario building up in the cockpit where their mindset was right the way till they hit the runway. We're going to land here. Okay, you got thunderstorms, you got lightning, you got windshare, you got flooded runway. We had a situation building up very similar to that, didn't we? We knew the bad weather was there. We could see it. And yet we were asked to go out and look for a missing 8-year-old child coming this way at about 25 knots. If it had been not an 8-year-old child, um then clearly the priority wouldn't have been quite so high. So what's the message for us? If you think the captain, anybody you consider to be very experienced, very capable, very able, he may not be making perhaps the right decision given that set of circumstances and you query it. All ended well from uh from our point of view. pleased to say the child was um found uh not without benefit but obviously uh it was a successful completion but it focused the mind. The worst of the storm is passing. Sierra Yankee 999 is outside ready to fly. It's clear and already a call is coming in. S Yankee 999. Roger. Thank you. If you could check the park for us. It's in relation to off road motorcyclist that's causing a nuisance up there. There are members of the public in the area that they're causing a danger to. Roger. We're just going to get uh airborne and we'll come and have a look for you. Captain Hail will pilot the mission without fear of lightning or rain. It doesn't take long to get to the scene and the search for the nuisance bikers begins. [Music] PC Lucas is quick off the mark and has the bikers in sight. Stop control 9 and we've come across uh a bike that was two up. Uh Billy passenger had no helmet on. He's just been dropped off. any officer in the area over I noticed the uh the bike um on on the roads on the estate and could immediately tell from the air that one the riders weren't wearing helmets uh and from the the style of the bike I could tell there wasn't didn't appear to be a number plate and uh it appeared that they were quite young as well probably too young to be riding the bike legally they will spot somebody just from the body language the hoods go up and they turn their backs um because they know that we're filming and it's all being recorded The crew now have to get ground cops into position fast. Any mobile in the area, please. Penis roads made off from SN9 drop one off in the area. So when we shouted to see if there any resource available at least to try and contain these lads. Oh, you're joking. We were told that there was nobody available at all. So we had to try and think out of the box a little bit, if you like. Thinking out of the box means stopping them getting away. Look right up down that path. Roger. Just to update you, the pillion who has no helmet on is now riding this bike and his mate who has a helmet is on the back. They've gone off road and they're back onto Penrift Road now. Uh sorry, the a lotment area at the back of Penri. Roger. That's all received. Any mobile that is passing Penri road area can try and give some attention please regarding these two on the bike near the alotment. Penri road control over shrubbering 99's crew are now in a difficult position. They know where the bikers are, but they still can't get officers to the scene. Yeah, Gary, he's hiding in there. either. It obviously was starting to panic. Uh and they went underneath a tree hoping that uh we wouldn't be able to see them. But fortunately, we're got them on the uh the thermal camera and we could see that they gone under the tree and stayed there at the bottom of somebody's garden. So hopefully we can get a car in here. Yeah. 99. Have you any mobile available? Just trying to speak to two lads on a motorbike. One with a helmet, one without. They've both been riding this bike on off road trying to keep away from us. But there's bad news. Yeah, I spoke to Fox. They're saying there's nobody available either on the response team or their It was a particularly busy afternoon in the Sheffield area. So, we were told nothing will be able to come for several minutes, perhaps 10 or 15 minutes, in which case these two would get away. It's now clear that 99 is going to have to come up with a solution. And Captain Hail has one. I'll try and come around downwind. Get a look on the other side. Hover and deplane his sky cops just like they rehearsed earlier. I said, "Let's land." Uh because it was perfectly legitimate and safe to do so. And that occasion we had two crewmen in the back. So there were four of us flying all together. Okay, I'm dropping now. [Music] The helicopter is downwind, well away from the hiding bikers. They shouldn't suspect a thing. There was a bit of a hillside between us and them. Uh, and all they'll have seen is the helicopter going too low for them to see, whether they realize we were landing or just thought we' we'd flown down the hillside a little bit. I don't know. 1298 230 receiving still in the trees. Yeah, I don't know if you've got to what's happening. We've deployed to out the back of the aircraft. As PC Lucas and Co move move in, 99 resumes position above in case the boys run off. They haven't. Both are now being read their rights by Skyop Lucas. I've got two detained with a stolen motorcycle so far. They're rather shocked. They They had no idea. They didn't hear us coming at all. They just stayed put when we appeared under there uh with a flying helmet still on. and uh just uh got a hold of them and started asking what they're up to, but for for a minute or so you could tell they didn't really understand how we'd got there. Yeah, I don't know if you got to what's happening. We've deployed to out the back of the aircraft and we've got two detained with a stolen motorcycle so far. Roger that. Thank you. I'll try and get somebody up to assist you. Appreciate. Thanks. Certainly that is a side of the job as far as being a beat officer that I absolutely loved the thrill of the chase kind of thing. I'm more than happy to jump out and get hands on. [Music] A big success. Look pretty good. I think from excess there's been an RTC on Fox House more. Are you able to attend please? But 99 is now one crew member short and will have to return to base before they can help out. Okay, dramatic departure. Back at base, PC Ian Cook is getting ready to fill the empty seat so they can attend the accident. PC Scaven is also on the way. Basically, we're going to be going up Abdale Road as far as we go towards spots south. Is that correct? The scenario is um onboard cyclist broke his leg. It's a compound fracture, bleeding profusely. Oh, go away in the box. 7 miles to go. The scene of the accident is remote. A long way off the beaten track. PC Scarban is going to have to walk from here. The injured man is fortunate. Another off-road biker saw him crash and phoned for help. I just come for a quick blast on my bike over here. I saw him messing around with the uh motorbike down at the bottom. And as I came over around the corner, he just came off the back of it, hit one of these rocks, and both his legs were wrapped around the wheel. PC Scven has two paramedics with him. They've also walked here. His foot was hanging off. His foot had gone through his back spokes and it basically severed his leg by bar his skin. Fortunately, a paramedic was with us so we didn't have to get hands on too much cuz it was a horrific injury. OH GOD. But the emergency team are in big trouble. This is the middle of the moore. The ambulance is at the bottom of the dirt track. There is a track up there, but there's no way we could get an ambulance up there. We had to to walk two miles to where that was and the guy was in a lot of pain. He's obviously freezing cold. Um potential of shock, hypothermia, that kind of thing. The paramedics on scene are believe it's that serious that we need to medacu. Normally, this would be a job for South Yorkshire's air ambulance. Is the air ambulance not available? The aircraft is not flying after 900 p.m. Okay. Okay. 99 now has to find a safe place to land. Another job for PC Scubbin. Just find a rocky spot for helicopter. So, while we're dealing with the casualty, I had to run around the uh the fields at the side and identify a nice flat piece of of of heather. Okay, that's good. Thanks. Here comes the cavalry. But even the cavalry have rules, strict ones. Before Captain Hail can agree to airlift the man to hospital, he must be sure they're dealing with a life or death situation. Police helicopters are not designed for nor should they be used for medical evacuation. Given certain parameters um then we are allowed to do um what may be necessary if life is at risk. The question we need to ask for the paramedic is, is he going to die if we don't set it? Right. Okay. Simple as that. If it's a case of it being difficult, both are necessary. Have to be difficult. The way the rules were. The debate can't take long. The injured man hasn't got time. [Music] He'd already lost a great deal of blood. And they said if we can't get him to the hospital within minutes from now, he will die. Welcome on board. Speed is now of the essence. Just securing the cruised in about 2 minutes to right. So we're back to the hospital. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. And they will be ready for us. Yeah. There's a uh waiting party for us. Roger. We'll be there in 5 minutes. P. Beats four-wheel drive, don't you reckon? Beats it by a mile. We certainly saved him a very uncomfortable drive in a Land Rover, I think, down a bumpy road and probably an hour's an worth of queueing in traffic. I think we saved him an awful lot of pain. How's the guy looking? Is he all right there? Yeah, he's doing good. Good. It's perhaps one of the most rewarding parts of the job. We don't do many Kazaks. Um, this one was the first one I'd done. Coming down. Okay. It's something a little bit out of the ordinary. a sense of achievement that we've put the aircraft to good use and and save somebody's life. As the biker goes to the operating theater, 99 returns home. Afterwards, his surgeon is able to confirm that he's out of danger and his leg's been saved. But it was a close call. If you hit your shin hard enough to break out through the skin, what you actually did was you started losing your leg. huge blood. An open tibial fracture is it's basically a partial amputation. Infection gets into the bone, it stops the healing process, and a significant number of people will still lose their limbs as a result of infection in a fracture. [Music] The longer the delay between the injury and their definitive treatment, the more likely you are to run into problems in future. The quicker we get people here, the quicker we can start moving and the quicker we can get that risk as low as we can. Nightfall means the long shift for Captain Hail and his crew is over at last. What a variety, eh? The injured man on the moors has made a full recovery but has given up off-road biking. And the two boys spotted by PC Lucas had their motorbike impounded and were given a court order. [Music]