<< Back

Olive Group Employee Awarded by the UAE Deputy Prime Minister

Following 5 days hard work managing the Search and Rescue (SAR) Team in the UAE Desert Challenge Rally, Angus Duthie was presented an award of recognition at the gala dinner by HRM Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, - Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE.

The rally sees competitors racing the rally staged in the empty quarter of the UAE with quad bikes, motorbikes, cars and trucks from world leading rally companies such as Peugeot, Mitsubishi, Chevrolet, BMW and Kamaz trucks. Each day of the rally covered up to 550Kms in some of the world’s harshest terrain and is the last in the FIA / FIM calander. The rally was supported by a team selected and trained by Angus with the majority of staff from Olive Group.

Close liaison by Angus in Rally Control between the SAR team and the pilots from the Abu Dhabi and Dubai Police saved lives. Angus demonstrated supreme calm and professionalism whilst managing the air recovery, treatment and transportation to hospital of a biker who had severe dehydration and the SAR of a quad biker who was lost in the desert and not on the FIM approved tracking solution on day 1. Day 2 saw the life saving recovery of another biker suffering from severe dehydration and the recovery of the driver and co-driver from 2 of the top international car racing teams. Day 3 required the recovery of a biker who had broken an arm.

Day 4 saw Angus crisis manage the recovery of 4 personnel from an aircraft that had to make a hard emergency landing and at the same time the recovery of the driver of a car who had a broken back. Shortly afterwards the team was required to search for another biker with injuries who had lost conscious for 20 minutes. The final rescue of the day was for a Japanese bike driver who had broken an arm whilst colliding with a “Caution Camels” sign in the middle of the desert en-route to the bivi site. Day 5 was quiet.