Highly experienced airborne volunteers could have played a valuable role in recent searches for missing persons in Fife if the use of their service had not been axed by Police Scotland, it has been claimed.
Retired RAF Leuchars Squadron Leader Archie Liggat, 55, said that before the single police service was introduced on April 1, volunteer pilots from the UK Civil Air Patrol charity also known as Skywatch regularly helped out in searches for missing people across Scotland.
In recent months they have not been called out, however, after Police Scotland ditched use of the service.
That decision has angered members of the patrol who warn the consequences could be catastrophic.
Mr Liggat, chief pilot of the group’s lowland unit, said the service provided a valuable additional resource.
The ex-Phantom pilot with 35 years’ flying experience, told The Courier: “We had four aircraft, which were based five minutes’ flying away from where both the bodies have been found this week.
“The question arises: could they have been found earlier if we were airborne? Could we have avoided a member of the public the trauma of finding a body on the beach if we’d been sweeping the area and saw it from above?”
Mr Liggat said Skywatch, which continues working for other agencies, never tried to be the police or take on a criminal investigation role when taking part in police operations.
However, he said that during the five years when services were accessed prior to the creation of Police Scotland, it was his view that the Skywatch volunteers made operations more efficient as they provided extra pairs of eyes in the sky.
A Police Scotland spokesman said a policy decision had been made about the use of Skywatch and that remain unchanged.
Regarding the most recent incidents, the police helicopter had helped search for Thomas Brown but its attendance was not deemed necessary in the search for Catriona Kennedy.