Friday afternoon being my study time, I was contemplating the options for a productive culmination to the day over lunch in the surgery. Then the phone rang, ‘It's Mike from the rescue team. Are you free?’ Around 11.30 that morning, an aeroplane had disappeared from radar over a remote tract of land, north-west of Ben Wyvis. It was a scheduled postal service returning to Inverness, with only the pilot onboard. Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team are not a busy team, but we cover a vast area including some of the most isolated mountain terrain in the British Isles. At the time of the phonecall, my car was having its MOT, but I was able to collect it by early afternoon to drive out west and join in the search.
Several team members were already on the …