Incident 23. DSRT Tavistock was called at 23.05 by the Police to search for a 25 year old walker who was several hours overdue for a rendezvous with friends in the middle of the Moor. Initially there was confusion as to whether he was walking to Devils Tor from Fur Tor or from Devil’s Tor to Fur Tor. Our Team members were put on standby and discussions were held with our colleagues in North Dartmoor SART. The Police eventually confirmed his intended route and at 02:40 a small hill party was deployed to search that route, while plans were made for deployment at daylight of search teams from DSRT Tavistock, DSRT Plymouth and NDSART.
The initial search party arrived at Fur Tor around 06:00 without locating the subject en route, so at 07:00 a full callout was initiated to carry out the deployments planned during the night. A Coastguard helicopter was tasked to perform a search of the area, and was to then airlift teams from Willsworthy Butts to search specific areas. The Helicopter had just landed to pick up team members when we were informed the missing walker had been located at 09:27 near Beardown Tors and was being escorted to the Police. All Teams were stood down, 10.5 hours after the initial call!
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