A HERCULES aircraft from RAF Lyneham in north Wiltshire was involved in a rescue mission to save the life of a newborn baby in Wales on Thursday.

The crew's mission was to fly to Glasgow to collect emergency equipment to treat the child and then deliver it to Cardiff Airport from where it was rushed by ambulance to a hospital in Swansea where the baby was.

Squadron Leader Paul Cole, co-pilot of the aircraft, said: 'We were getting ready for a training exercise and already had the engines running.

"When we got the call saying we had to go to Glasgow it was just a matter of filing the flight plan and we were off within 10 minutes.

"Things like this give you great job satisfaction because hopefully we have saved someone's life."