A Wormit woman has been dramatically airlifted to Ninewells Hospital after plunging more than 80ft from a clifftop onto jagged rocks.
Emergency services rushed to the beach near the south side of the Tay Rail Bridge at around 7.45pm on Thursday after two young boys found the woman, who slipped and fell from her back garden on Riverside Road.
The Broughty Ferry Lifeboat crew were scrambled but could not gain access without risking further injury, meaning a daring airlift had to be carried out just metres from the rock face with the tide coming in.
Mike Donald, of the Ninewells trauma team, was one of the first on the scene, with paramedics from the Scottish Ambulance Service.
He said, “The woman is in her late 60s and is in a stable condition. She has fallen around 80ft from the top of the cliff and needed pain relief and some splinting but we won’t know how severe her injuries are until she undergoes a full evaluation.”
An eyewitness said two local boys had raised the alarm after hearing the woman shouting for help. “Two boys found her on the beach after she had fallen from the cliff and one of them ran up to the road to flag the ambulance down. She had been shouting for help.
“After the paramedics arrived, her husband came down and I saw him walking back with her shoes in his hand they had blood all over them.”
The woman’s husband, who was visibly shaken by the incident, confirmed she had slipped and fallen from their garden, which backs onto the sheer cliff face.
He said, “She has just slipped over. I am going to Ninewells now. I don’t really want to talk about it just now.”
The RAF Lossiemouth rescue helicopter crew used a ‘highline’ technique in the rescue, the aircraft hovering 50 feet back from the woman to avoid debris being scattered by the downwash from the rotor blades and to give the pilot a safe margin in which to operate away from the cliff face.
A specialist coastguard rope access team from St Andrews also attended to secure the stretcher from the shore while the woman was winched into the helicopter.
Broughty Ferry Lifeboat coxswain Murray Brown said his team arrived at the scene within minutes but were unable to extract the woman.
He said, “We got a call at around 7.45pm saying a woman had fallen 80ft from a cliff on to the rocks. We launched the inshore lifeboat in case we were needed but were told an airlift was going to be coming in.
“I believe she has sustained severe spinal injuries.”
Sergeant Ray Giles of Fife Constabulary said, “We were aware of the tide coming in and the time we had, so for us it was really just a matter of letting the coastguard and the ambulance service do their jobs.”
A Ninewells trauma team met the helicopter as it arrived at the hospital.
A coastguard spokesman said, “This was a good team effort with excellent co-operation among the emergency services.”