Army report reveals failings of organisers

Army report reveals failings of organisers

25 July 2018

DAMNING reports into an incident in the heart of the Mournes almost a year ago when a group of army cadets — some as young as 12 – became marooned in treacherous conditions have pointed to a series of failings.

The expedition ended with a major rescue mission spearheaded by the emergency services after weather conditions became particularly poor when heavy rain lashing the mountains and visibility falling to 50 feet.

Around 70 members of the Cleveland Army Cadets Force, including 10 adults, were taking part in a Duke of Edinburgh awards programme but after getting into difficulty the alarm was raised and a major rescue operation swung into action to escort them to safety. 

Eight of the cadets had to be stretchered off the mountain as weather conditions prevented Coastguard helicopters from flying.

The reports reveal the cadets became stranded with inadequate supervision and clothing after a series of failures by expedition organisers.

Details of the internal army reports into the incident, released under the Freedom of Information Act, identified basic failings, with the documents confirming the incident “could easily have been more serious” and can “best be described as a near miss.” 

The reports said the “the conditions for potential and serious failure had existed for some time,” questioning the risk assessments carried out before outdoor adventure programmes and raising the need for adequate contingency planning.

The reports reveal the cadets, aged between 12 and 17, were issued with waterproof clothing but all were “soaked through to the skin within 30 minutes”.

The reports said many had gone without breakfast on the morning of the rescue “due to pressure to get moving” which “no doubt contributed to the resilience of cadets in adverse weather conditions”.

The expedition organisers used a weather app to ascertain the conditions, which was unsuitable for establishing the true conditions the cadets would encounter.

One assessment notes that the trip’s exercise director had assumed that the Mourne Mountains were classified as “normal” when they are actually designated as “wild country,” making them unsuitable for the training of certain classes of cadet.

It continues: “It is suspected that some of the leaders/supervisors were not sufficiently qualified or experienced to lead expeditions in the Mourne Mountains.”

Two of the cadet teams did not have a dedicated adult instructor. Normally such trips would have an instructor to student ratio of 1:10, but one team leader was responsible for 19 cadets. 

The reports note: “On arrival (at the emergency rendezvous) there were only five adult instructors with the 64 cadets remaining on the mountain (a ratio of almost 1:13), which exceeded all of the recommended ratios.”

Another report notes that the reconnaissance of the route had been conducted by a Duke of Edinburgh officer who had been given a risk assessment by an external adventure training provider which he believed, removed his planning responsibility, described as a “serious error”.

It has also emerged that an earlier expedition had been scrapped because of a lack of qualified instructors on the advice of an army training services adviser.

The reports conclude: “What happened on the Mourne Mountains can best be described as a ‘near miss’. The (force) commandant has put into place manpower changes and assurance processes to prevent it happening again.”

While the Army has played down the incident, claiming the press portrayed it as being “significantly more serious than it was,” the internal reports admit the situation could easily have been more serious.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said the safety of its cadets was “of the utmost importance”.

A spokesperson added that a number of recommendations have been made to prevent another incident in future.