Inside RAF Brize Norton Episode 1

RAF Brize Norton Britain's largest military airbase 8000 men and women serve and live in a thriving community the size of a small town it operates 24 hours a day with seven flying squadrons to parachute units I'll race going now a world-class aeromedical evacuation unit this is our number one priority get this guy home and an airport that dispatches and receives thousands of troops back home from war zones I'm so excited when it cry the most seasoned professionals rub shoulders with the newest recruits train hard fight easy done correctly it's a work of art but it's more than just a military base supporting operations in Afghanistan hosting traditional historic celebrations to the saddest of all occasions everything stops for the reporters to take effect inside RAF Brize Norton in this episode a flight crew prepared to deliver a helicopter to Camp Bastian in Afghanistan there could be surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades as well an emergency on board a hercules aircraft as a load gets jammed he kind of started running around a bit like you're not supposed to in a 30 something's not right and a medical team is scrambled to airlift a highly infectious patient to a specialist hospital the journey by Road exposed the people bringing the patient back to some risk of acquiring the affection from the patient RAF Brize Norton is the biggest and busiest military airbase in the UK the runway here is the major hub for sending troops and critical cargo to support military operations all over the world every year Brize Norton handles an average of 250 thousand personnel movements and a huge variety of hardware and supplies out the war in Afghanistan over 3,000 miles away this genic helicopter is due to be dispatched to Camp Basten Chinooks are vital for aeromedical evacuations and airlifting troops and equipment around the in his spit all terrain of the wild Afghan landscape it's a battlefield helicopter it's able to operate in areas where you're not going to be able to get other aircraft in and it can carry loads that no other helicopter cap going out scooping people up and getting them back to us but was as quick as possible it's essential to operations essential to looking after our people the team at RAF odium in Hampshire are preparing the helicopter for transport to Afghanistan via Brize Norton the aircraft breakdown is approximately a five day process including its transport to Burroughs Norton the reason we do it is to get it to fit onto the c-17 includes taking the blades off forward and aft heads transmissions etc to be able to make it to fit and once it's landed in Camp Bastion this Chinook will be reassembled and start the serious business of saving lives it's just after dawn at Brize Norton and a c-17 the monster of all cargo planes receives the Chinook into its hole flown by 99 squadron the eight strong fleet can each haul up to 45 tons of outsized cargo pilot Annabel bacon is flying the c-17 with the Chinook onboard on the first part of a two-stage journey to Camp Bastion in Afghanistan every time I pick up at the aircraft there's a different load of different requirements so for taking freight or people or anything really around the world so sort of unusual than usual it's a seven-hour flight to the Middle East and Annabel and her copilot have a lot to focus on during the flight of Assisi pilots at the front of the aircraft will be prompting the radiator traffic control whether avoiding some time deciding or hi we'd rather fly out meanwhile the ground engineer is responsible for the maintenance of the aircraft grab some sleep in the back say the ground engineer at their job and service do cross we fuel the aircraft six the aircraft should anything go wrong and it breaks so actually they are trying to get suppressed in flight so that they can be better place to so take off but we can't and when we learn we sit around their got those get in see there you go your turn for many pilots the pleasure of flying the c-17 is the combination of its sheer size and capabilities this design for outsize cargo so we can take anything that helicopters and tanks and vehicles pretty much anything really that you can think about what I love about it is what its new for starters so that's always nice to fly something there's this and got a great future ahead of it as the day ends Annabelle's stage of the flight draws to a close the beautiful hunter out of the window and it's never ever boring sight everything there's always different to have cloud formations and cities later he can't always see the ground Phillip out honestly and but they're they're pretty good it's a really nice size and Stephanie ones that you do think Wow I'll pay for this and the shop regions you know what after seven hours in the air Annabelle's flying time is up a fresh crew is waiting on the ground to continue the journey now in Anderson of the destination has the lease and the other crews have arrived at the aircraft and starting their tax check the rate and all the typing for the next bit of flying into Afghanistan and we'll just then head off to the accommodation get a little my Jersey taking over the controls from Annabel bacon is flight leftenant John lecornu his leg of transporting the chanock to Camp Bastion is far more of a challenge once they cross the border into Afghanistan the crew adjusts to entering a war zone and the threat of enemy fire small arms fire it could be organized or it could be just some random Taliban they're trying to have a hot shot at us and there could be other threats such as their surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades as well looking after it and unloading it in Camp Bastion is the job of loadmaster Johnathan Owen Williams flight from here to Bastion is about two hours and 15 minutes which isn't long all at all when we're getting near to the border and we'll have a brief and we'll do some combat entry drills which is just to get the aircraft ready to go into theatres there's a number of things that we can do to be tactical going into places like Bastion and Afghanistan one example is we need to make sure that the puppet is completely armored so we'll take the cushions off the seats will put bulletproof armor on the seats to protect that the crew will also put body armor on as well first time I put body armor going into a theater of operations it did feel rather strange I'll just come out training and suddenly that made me realize this is what I've joined for it is uncomfortable when you're trying to fly it's like trying to put wearing a a small rucksack or driving your car also we have a member of each crew constantly looking out down and behind us for any signs of shots being fired at the aircraft etc also before we start to send in the lights have to go and over their covert so we'll switch to red lighting and put that down fairly fairly low so that obviously the aircraft is flat from outside one of the big dangers apart from the ground trying to come down quickly it's not been on a suit so we do actually use night-vision goggles they make sure that we're all that everyone is ready for any sort of edge reality that might happen but really it is that the heightened sort of sensors as you go in just trying to make sure that we we stayed safe with all the precautions taken and the dissent about to begin John and his team are ready for any emergency really it's a very quick dive from altitude down to the airfield having to work force a little bit harder to actually make sure that everyone the aircraft and you and whichever precious cargo you taking actually make safe as you go in so gets re going a little bit more after a safe and bumpy Bastian landing the Chinook is safely on the ground in Afghanistan within days it will be reassembled and ready to offer life-saving support for troops on the ground is the end of a testing flight for the c-17 of 99 squadron and it's this kind of adrenaline on flying into a war zone that pilots like lecornu have signed up for it does stretch you as a crew and you have to think more carefully about what you're doing and really one of the reasons you join the military is to stretch yourself and maybe put yourself into a little bit more danger than normal RAF Brize Norton is Britain's busiest military airbase each year thousands of troops and millions of tons of supplies are flown out to the frontline and whenever someone is badly injured in action the aeromedical evacuation service based apprise Norton will come to the rescue and bring them back home we're the military's air ambulance service we'll deal with some of the most severely ill people within the military or seriously injured within 24 hours of their injury we've scrambled a team which is effectively a mobile intensive care department the aeromedical team are on call 24/7 it's 5:00 a.m. on a cold November morning and they're heading out to Cyprus on a Tristar to collect patients who've been sent back from the frontline in Afghanistan as well as returning soldiers with varying degrees of physical injuries the RAF also brings home personnel who've suffered other kinds of damage from being exposed to a wall psychiatric nurse Shawn leach takes care of patients whose injuries are not physical but mental the fish are picking up today once adjusted the action another one is suffering from a post-traumatic stress reaction a lot of the things that the guy seeing Taylor shrugs EF they'll you know they're not equipped to deal with it getting x+ promised the NGO and as notes up will review the chain eventually as I shall be involved you shake it the Corporal for what my board and they are money their meetings with my three members are here in safety we are a medical team at blinds Norton make an average of three flights a week the team grab as much sleep as they can as they know the return flight caring for their patients will be very hands-on soon their land in Cyprus and head off to meet their new patients 40 30 20 10 at the airport in Cyprus the team improvised an outdoor workspace patience of a lifetime from Bastian we're just getting a handle for now see what the clinical up there is worth um attend to any clinical decent interfacing pshhh alpha what he's doing okay it was really minimal rest knees we just keen to get home he summed up he's aware of what's happening the way you're taking him on you're moving them forward good I need really keen to have a support his family soldiers physical injuries are well known to the public but much less familiar are other types of damage walking cause I think your theater a lot of things can trigger certain emotions and quite acute stress reactions can take place and when people away from a violent away from the people they trust to manage how they usually feel without those usual support networks it can sometimes be quite difficult for them to cope both of the person experiencing a breakdown and the morale of fellow troops it's important to get the patient away from the frontline the aim is to get all casualties back home as quickly as possible but regards to the psychiatry itself and mental health provision and we seem to be shaken off this stigma insulting associated but there so no the guys are more willing to come forward and see kill has got viewed as a weakness anymore this girl played ball just to get them back again to the UK so best appropriate Luca as keeping them calm keep nominal safe environment making sure that there's nothing else could interfere with them and then just telling them that sleep deprived 16 stored here off Scott's been looking after him and they tend to behave themselves betrayin cottage sleep slips a great yellow for these guys you know when the Ford operating bases on the car the sleep pattern is somewhat disruptive you can't really get up to the hours you know there's always something going on now seeing multiple traumas I've seen them done it's being killed you know guys at the Laughlin with one minute next weather is no longer there they get hit with IEDs you know when you think of it at some of these guys are 18 18 years of age you know well school they went through basic training but nothing can prepare you for what actually happened over there we do get a lot of guys have suffered blast injuries you know the first one I saw shoot me to the core there's a guy we lured abdominal injury and both his legs missing I think we're hunting war was a fight that he lost his genitals as well 50 40 30 20 well satisfied but about this job as getting them home safely back to the other going to be on touching down patients are desperate to make contact with their loved ones we've made our phone call and it gives them peace I made it gives the families because I'm in one of the back in the UK because that makes a big difference for as opposed to be five thousand miles away and the by the UK I wasn't touching distance and I thought picks up the mental health side of things you know like use my hell a lobbyist RAF Brize Norton flies everything from wounded soldiers thousands of troops and over 31 million kilos of supplies and equipment around the world based just off the main runway is number one Air Mobility wing these are the people who load and unload whatever's on board today they're in training unloading the contents of a hercules transport aircraft on the runway in brize norton under the watchful eye of sergeant make happens but in a couple of weeks they'll be doing it for real at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan one of our main priorities in camp Rossiter off load and unload aircraft while the engines are running the reason is to save time and also in theater if the injured had to stop and they couldn't be restarted who then lose the asset of the aircraft this is a sort of operation we perform in any scenario day and night Mick and his team will be doing a three-month tour of Afghanistan I like so many servicemen and women he'll be leaving his family behind Nicole disrobe book she's a daddy's girl and we do have lots of Tears and we make lots of things special for her like she's got a doll with their dad's face on and we have lots of special days out we have to treat her with a kid gloves lesson mix teenage daughter Chloe has got used to her dad being away from home if he feels like a couple of days I don't really mind I just got my things but if he's gone a long way I don't know how he's very grown-up for a for a nearly a teenager she's very sensible she does miss me when I go away however she also knows that she has to be more grown-up about it she helps with the cooking she actually cleaning we've not quite trained to do the ironing yet it's a that will come in time there's on the map can you remember where that is going on the map around there somewhere it's not far really is it it's mixed first time in Afghanistan and the realities of being in a war zone are worrying for his family they do and ask questions now especially with the repats coming back surprise we do get more questions and the news clicks on all the time but we do tend to cross over or is someone else on the news has died but I hear that's fine it's not one of daddy's back at Brys normal on the airfield 1:00 a.m. w's training exercise is coming to an end the next time they'll be doing this will be three and a half thousand miles away in Afghanistan next an emergency on a Hercules aircraft when a load jams suddenly free door and gone out of the aircraft we have been way off the drop zone and we could have been overt in with over a main road an urgent mission for the error medical team as a critically ill patient is airlifted to specialist care he has an infectious disease there is deemed to be a risk to himself and possibly a public health risk Brize Norton is the hub of Britain's military air deployment both at home and overseas and one of the key roles it plays is sending supplies and equipment to troops all over the world specialist army unit 47 air dispatch squadron of the Royal logistic Corps has been based applies in ordnance since 2011 they're their delivery boys of the British military dropping vital supplies and equipment anywhere in the world by aircraft or helicopter $47 batch Gordon can make a life change difference on operations that is especially in Afghanistan where we operate continually for the last 10 years if you are in dire straits and you need something right now and you can't get it by vehicle then we enjoy the pressure of working under those types of conditions this particular container is probably about one tons worth of ammunition there can be parachute from there now the real benefit from parachute in one ton of ammunition it means a soldier and operations doesn't have to get into his vehicle and drive that I mean ammunition to resupply somewhere so we're hopefully saving lives of troops on the ground airdrop supplies are a critical lifeline to isolated forward operating bases or fobs you love your main base that combusting or Kandahar and then you love you your other fobs that are branched out from them they're basically ways of holding the ground not very they're not very luxurious sandbag walls or an old compound so the lads in now are on bare minimums so everything everything they can get the runs on it's good for them in a war zone like Afghanistan the accuracy of a drop is even more critical last thing you guys do is resupply the Taliban refresher munition and water for them to fire our troops with so it's number one priority that we got it in the right spot we can fly in safely away from all the IEDs all the roadside bombs suicide bombers a safe height will swoop down do the airdrop and get straight back up out of the way but being in the air doesn't stop them from being a target without close calls without engine fires and been shot at small arms fire you have RPGs fire that yet a lot of the time because you're in the back of the aircraft you can't see you know you're you're contained inside it so ignorance is bliss really some when you get back and you realize that people have been shooting or no they land and say quick golf engines on fire you know things like that that gets your heart going intensive training takes place that Brize Norton practice a lot of low-level flying we'll practice a lot of air drops to make sure that things don't go wrong and operations every exercise begins with a safety briefing despite the noisy intrusions from outside when we all play a lot here in test segment that's why we live on the wrong way that'll be a load you make thank you after three hours of low-level flying the T reached their designated drop zone near Ted worth in Wiltjer piccola chopper ready we conclude when you're blasting around in the plane and the back doors open there's always a chance you could miss your footing on something and stumble out the back well that's why I obviously why we wear the harnesses to stop as a hitting the ground when we go off the back of the round it's quite it's quite scary because you'll write off at the edge and you've got the wind coming in to the side yeah I'm quite scared of heights of flying so it's a bit of a challenge but it's very exciting it's a time as the pilot signal they're approaching the drop zone it's time for Steve to make the call the first three crates dispatched correctly but there's a problem with the fourth suddenly the crew are dealing with a totally unexpected situation known as the load emergency Becky Lane can see from watching Steve that something's gone very wrong he kind of started running around a bit like you're not supposed to and I think it's not right so he put the chocks in and I put this chain on it's an urgent scramble to lock down the load and prevent it going out the back as the aircraft is now speeding away from the safety of the drop zone we had a jump low I've never seen it happen before it's never happened to me come under yours on everything the car the back and that's I got one side we did it it could have been dangerous if in a soft right on the edge of the ramp and the way that the load would have been on the back end of the aircraft luckily for us he stopped in the middle in the center of the aircraft because if it suddenly freed off and gone out of the aircraft we'd have been way off the drop zone and we could have been over Tidworth or somewhere like that what only seems like a few seconds in the air this potentially being a couple of miles unexpected equipment failure shows just how valuable training can be obviously always talk about a happening but it hasn't happened in so long we don't really expect it to then you have to react quite quickly and know what to do it's good to have that experience now so if it happens again I know what I'm doing it makes me feel good let's be honest that that we've got a job to do and we can do it to the best of our ability because every job every job within the military has its own parts all so a different Cardinal big machine RAF Brize Norton doesn't just transport military hard-wearing troops around the world if there is a medical emergency involving British civilians here in the UK or abroad which requires an aircraft Brize Norton will respond and that is critically ill in hospital with britain's first case of the potentially fatal disease crimean-congo viral hemorrhagic fever it's extremely rare in Western Europe at the moment his condition is critical in the Brownlee center behind me this is the infectious diseases center at Gartner Ville Hospital in Glasgow the patient needs to be flown urgently from Glasgow to a specialist hospital for infectious diseases in London and a team from Bryce's Aero medical unit has been dispatched for this patient that were collecting tonight he has an infectious disease that is deemed to be a risk to himself and possibly a public health risk and therefore we've been activated to collect they're taken an isolation unit for the patient to prevent the risk of spreading the deadly virus this is the transportable isolator that can move places with a highly infectious disease in isolation once a patient is loaded into this we can secure them and create an isolation field what we do this is a team of highly trained medical professionals working with a device that essentially allows them to transfer a patient but without spreading the infection risk around this piece of kit is only ever used once every five or six years it's quite a rare mission to recover patients suffering with a highly infectious diseases and so yes in terms of our call-out were not activated too many times when the call originally came through you could say there's a degree of trepidation and the fact that it is required is is not normalized not routine he has just six hours to assemble his team at Brys it was my role to try and arrange the team and get the team here start to prepare the kid and equipment have a good transportation do we have team support do have emmalin's truss support logistical can remove equipments ready to go now we're ready to go see jumbled ins just arrived now to load the air transportable isolator onto it and we'll take the jungle and equipment and all the team loading on the aircraft the champion's is a super-sized ambulance capable of carrying large numbers of patients as well as bulky medical equipment it's the quickest and safest way of getting the isolation unit to the Hercules waiting on the runway the bottom ends guys less than an hour after the call came in the Hercules is packed and ready to go it's the only way we could safely transport the patient because the journey by Road would take a very long time I would also expose the people who were bringing the patient back in the ambulance to some risk of acquiring the affection from the patient the facility that the RAF and Brazelton provide is invaluable for moving these patients there's just no other way to do it and there are very very highly trained and highly skilled group of people and without them our function as a unit in the middle of London with the Great and diminished it was going through my mind is still that trepidation all the equipment work when this runs smoothly can we ensure that there's no risks felt to anybody undertaking this mission process until that eventual arrival the rule free whenever the next day the transfer of the patient from Glasgow to London was successful but tragically the patient died in hospital at RAF Brize Norton the biggest aircraft on the runway is the c-17 Globemaster it can carry monster loads of cargo over long distances and today its capabilities and the people loading it are being put to the test they've got to get a helicopter the height of a bungalow and the weight of two double-decker buses on board and off to Afghanistan out on the front line this knurling will transport up to 45 combat troops at a time and resupply bases with vital weapons and equipment merlyn's probably one of the most difficult loads we do the first time you ever see it out the back you think incorrectly that is going to be quite tight john is supervising recently qualified Craig Harvey who's been put in charge of the loading this is going to be about reporting are they so anything goes wrong we've got potential to cause quite an upset but almost immediately there's a big problem the opening ramp has stuck one of the prop services so I reckon just a proc sensors not talking to the ATSC part of the RAM systems not working and as a result we can't get the helicopter on because you can't get a continuous surface all way down to the floor to winch helicopter up so you need at this time in morning the pressure is on Craig as the c-17 must leave Brize Norton on time it has to reach Afghanistan under the cover of darkness to avoid the threat of being shot out in daylight this is cause the half hours of speak or tan are delayed so when you're on a tight time schedule anyway any delays now will add extra pressure to ourselves at last there's a breakthrough stop has to be working yeah we'll keep going and seeing opens again yeah the Birkin yeah now the ramp is fixed Craig can focus on the task in hand loading the massive Merlin helicopter on board any will seize any voltage drops another day you do this you know Tyler you support big shot at 74 feet nearly half the length of an Olympic swimming pool it has to be broken down to fit inside and first on is the tail section Frank's rock loadmasters work long and very antisocial hours but it's the variety and importance of their tasks that motivate them the motivation probably for most of the squadron is the fact that you know you are supporting the frontline troops and a squadron also does the repatriation of guys back so you know you get to see firsthand the cost of it and as such I think that does motivate people to to try the very hardest to get the kit to theater to support the guys out there so that we don't see too many of the repatriation now we've got various people position round the aircraft one on top and several on the sides just to make sure that the clearances are sufficient for the aircraft it's not going to strike with just a three centimeter gap at the top and a 50 centimeter gap either side to get it through the door Craig's got his work cut out for him but the crew now need to pull it as far into the cargo hold as they can the three centimeter gap seems tighter than ever - hard again nice and slow great nicer so me yeah much world you gotta go break turn turn say with the helicopters safely on board John's pleased with Craig's performance he's not damaged either aircraft which is excellent news and yeah not really many points to teach him and everything's gone very well so very pleased with the way the days gone but Craig's day isn't over yet he now has a seven hour flight to the Middle East where another loader will step in to take this crucial delivery to its final destination Camp Bastion another outpost served by the c-17 is the Mount Pleasant base in the Falkland Islands a 19-hour flight away reported tensions between Argentina in the UK indicate that shipping embargoes have hit the remote islands resulting in a shortage of today's cargo eggs but there's a technical issue with the aircraft we started the aircraft and it checks itself when should all the engines running and we had a problem with the number two engine couldn't give us any anti protection and because we were going to go oceanic of the Atlantic we need to protect the engine some ice and the engineer's told us it was going to be three hours there to open up all the engine doors to get it fixed a broken down aircraft means a delayed flight which also means more work for Kerry Murphy Brown and her flight logistics team who now have to reorganize an entire flight plan that was due out or 700 quid is also going to be delayed getting down to NP a additionally to that that film will then be late getting back to Brezhnev's and so for the next task in it has a knock-on effect every delay has kind of a domino effect where fail where Dale we hooked up a laptop with specialist diagnostic equipment hopefully we'll be able to diagnose which switch opponents are father and rectify them but there's a further set back the laptop isn't working first thing you do with your PC at home is is probably turn off antenna bar try us except all the cable connections no joyful the important egg delivery is grounded it's a bit of a shame you know we've got it got a crate full of eggs and a bucket I run like this you take stuff out of the falkland city can't easily get old of their eggs smarter sauce here stuff fit a small island like that doesn't money fast it all can't get easily be personally I'd like to see that those egg starring the Portland's on someone's breakfast plate the task is delayed by 24 hours 67 to 24-hour delay to lie easy just a straight 24 at same time in simple things but just 24 hours later just makes everything easy for the efforts and route a 24 hour gives 10 then Thomas off get crank on that and hopefully by tomorrow it should be good to go I'm hopefully like but you never know what's gonna happen to you I'm fairly confident see for the equipment works as it should look we'll get it done before 7 o'clock and morning meal from engineer's we always blame them if they can't fix the aircraft in time and they tend to blame us if we break it twenty-four hours late the c-17 is repaired and the six thousand eggs and the rest of the cargo are on their way to the Falklands I just find it funny the a guy I'm not qualified to move 230 million pound aircraft as it seemed leaving them in charge of three or four guys yet if I can reverse we've danced one into a parking space inside help amongst it just completely ignore me cos e knows best sergeant Mick Edmonds of number one Air Mobility wing is also about to take to the skies he's about to leave the UK for a three month deployment to Afghanistan now though it's all about spending as much time with his family as he can heavy isn't it how to live how do you live there isn't it that's what dad puts his pet lunch in that bit Nicole it sounds fun we just go in there yeah you'll take that out again sandwiches in a big plate there was a cucumber sweat miner in Afghanistan Mick will have an allowance of just 30 minutes of phone calls a week and it's not always easy to get a connection thankfully he's discovered that 45-second voice recordings known as talking tins can be posted to the front line you're as mad as a box of frogs and this batch is gonna wear out and you come this way gets near Afghanistan I think what we need to do before we use this is actually write something down yeah it's always nice to receive gifts from the girls I'm sure they'll be sending me all sorts of boxes I dread to think the sort of things Nicole will put in the box knowing her sense of humor but simple things like a packet of cheese and onion crisps would be nice Oh and even though Mick's not leaving for a couple of days Nicole already has our first box filled I've got a stressful thing guys let's get a little bit stressed as a little wash a little pack of playing cards and the pic okay the last few days are not the toughest for us I think the toughest days are when you find out you go in the last few days quite easily everything is ready to go it's just a matter of actually getting up again now because the sooner you're getting there the sooner you can come back with a 640 a.m. departure mix at the terminal in the wee small hours having said goodbye to his family at home yes I do worry about him but I also can't live worrying about him because I would pull my hair out and I have the opinion elf well he could walk out the house tomorrow and get knocked off his bike on the way to work and that is how he's at work and that's how I have to have it in my head that's his job he's happy to be going which sounds a bit bizarre wanted to go say can't stand in their way you have to support them every way of course I miss him you missin AIDS yeah you do you miss some loads get on on your own but luckily he comes back you you

Channel: lancaster292

Views: 271,927

Rating: 4.8532648 out of 5

Keywords: Royal Air Force (Organization), RAF Brize Norton (Airport), inside brize norton, sky, sky one, tv, sky one series, Episode Part, Sky1 (TV Network), Series, Flying, Helicopter, raf, Jet, Plane, Aviation (Industry), Airplane, Aircraft, factual, tv program

Id: hqFm7G0hnqE

Length: 42min 55sec (2575 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 22 2013