IT HAS been a familiar sight in the skies over the Vale of Glamorgan, but the RAF's famous yellow rescue helicopters have made their final flight.

The Sea King choppers based at Chivenor in Devon, which cover South Wales and the West of England, were formally stood down at 1:00pm on Sunday.

Chivenor is the last of the RAF’s bases to hand over responsibility for helicopter search and rescue to civilian contractor Bristow Helicopters Ltd.

The six RAF search and rescue (SAR) units have completed 34,025 callouts and rescued 26,853 people in distress since 1983.

The final sortie took place in the early hours of Sunday when a man was rescued after they airlifted a 38-year-old man, who was found unconscious on Ilfracombe Beach, to hospital.

Chivenor’s crew was tasked at 3.21am and were on scene shortly before 4.00am. The man was flown to Morriston Hospital in Swansea, after which the crew of 'Rescue 169' flew to Cardiff Airport to refuel. Dense fog there prevented their departure, so a second RAF SAR crew was brought to readiness at Chivenor and took over the commitment, providing the final few hours of RAF SAR duty in the UK.

The Sea King at Cardiff flew back to Chivenor, landing at 12:07pm.

Speaking after Chivenor’s SAR crews had been stood-down, Group Captain Steve Bentley, RAF Search and Rescue Force Commander for the UK said: “It is with enormous pride that we can reflect on the RAF’s life-saving achievements since rescue operations began in 1941.

"Thousands of lives have been saved and individuals reunited with their loved ones through rescue missions often flown in the most difficult and extreme conditions.

"This continuous operational standby commitment has been delivered day-on-day across 8 decades through the dedicate, selfless commitment and the determined pursuit of the highest professional standards of our aircrew, engineers and support staff. ”