A member of the Royal Navy has been recognised for bravery after rescuing two stranded climbers.
Lieutenant Commander Robin Suckling is to receive the Queen's Commendation for Bravery after playing a crucial role in a search and rescue at Buachaille Etive Mor in the Highlands in March last year.
He was a member of the duty crew at the Prestwick-based unit who were scrambled to look for the climbers who had spent the night on the mountain after being caught out in icy winds.
They had to fly through extremely poor weather before arriving at the scene, where after a short search they were given an updated position from mountain rescue teams and the climbers were found at 3,350ft on the summit.
The crew attempted a landing nearby but had to abandon it because of gusts of more than 60mph. A safe landing site was established about 100 metres from the climbers and Lt Cdr Suckling volunteered to escort them back to the aircraft, supporting the second man who had an injured leg.
He said: "I battled my way across the icy summit to the casualties, at one point I had to sit down on the snow for fear of being blown over on the exposed ridge.
"Once I managed to check that they were okay, I then had to persuade them to come with me to the Sea King. I got them safely on board and I'd say they were pretty relieved to see us."
The aircraft then delivered the climbers into the care of Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team at the bottom, before returning back to the HMS Gannet base.
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