A Glastonbury woman was taken to hospital with serious injuries after falling around 80ft from a cliff at Cheddar Gorge. The 42-year-old woman was airlifted to Bristol's Frenchay Hospital in the early hours of Wednesday 15th August by an RAF Search and Rescue helicopter. Mendip Cave Rescue received an emergency call through the SARCALL system concerning a missing woman at 8.20pm on Tuesday 14th August. The casualty was found after a two-hour search operation that included Avon and Somerset Cliff Rescue and ambulance crews. An Avon and Somerset Search and Rescue spokesman said: "The injured female was treated by the rescue team's doctor and paramedic for her injuries. Alan George, from the rescue team, said: "One of the cave rescue team actually heard somebody - we managed to narrow it down and located her. The casualty was moved to a safe location at the top of Cheddar Gorge where she was winched to an RAF Search and Rescue Helicopter at 00:30am for immediate transfer to Frenchay Hospital."
p>A call was received at 21:25 on 02/01/12 via the new Sarcall Communications System from Avon & Somerset Police advising of an overdue party in Swildons Hole. The group of three males had entered the cave via Priddy Green Sink entrance at approx 12.30 and had been due out by 19:30. Priddy Green was checked to see if their car was there – which it was – and then MCR was immediately joined by a police patrol. Within a couple of minutes a caver appeared and advised that the remaining two were OK but tired and were above the twenty and making their way out. They exited the cave approx 21:55 and the incident was closed. The reason they gave for being overdue was that the Priddy Green Sink entrance had tired them out (one of them was over 60) and they had then struggled through Blue Pencil Passage and the Mud sump area which had slowed them further. Feed back from the Avon & Somerset Police was that MCR responded extremely quickly and that the new Sarcall communications system worked very well.