Man airlifted to hospital after tombstoning off waterfall at Goathland, near Whitby

Emergency services airlifted a man to hospital after he was hurt reportedly "tombstoning" near Whitby.
The rescue at Thomason Foss.The rescue at Thomason Foss.
The rescue at Thomason Foss.

Off-duty nurses were first to treat the injured person after they fell off Thomason Foss Waterfall, closed to Goathland yesterday afternoon (Sunday).

Teams from Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue were called out to the popular beauty spot at 4.45pm, along with crews from North Yorkshire Police, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service and Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

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The search and rescue team posted on its Facebook page: "Thomason Foss - a steep sided valley - is particularly difficult to extract a casualty from and, in light of the suspected injuries, we requested the assistance of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency Helicopter from Humberside Airport which completed a difficult winch from the scene of the accident and then flew the patient to Hull Royal Infirmary for definitive medical care.

"Our team had 27 team members deployed for three and three quarter hours in appropriate Covid-19 PPE. "

The search and rescue team said the injured male had been "tombstoning" off the waterfall.

Tombstoning is used to describe jumping into water from a high platform in a straight, upright vertical posture - resembling a tombstone.

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Three people were seriously hurt jumping 70ft from a cliff in Dorset copying the same dangerous craze on Saturday.

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