Channel Islands Air Search responded to a record number of calls in September and October, bosses said.

The team, which is deployed to incidents across 4,000 square miles (6,437 square km) of water surrounding the Channel Islands and French coasts, said it had seen a “significant increase” in responses in the fall .

Volunteers reported responding to 12 calls, of which two withdrew, between September 1 and October 27.

That compares to just one call for the same period in 2023, the service said.

He said the interventions this year amounted to about 25 hours of flight search, with the crew devoting more than 200 hours of their time.

The department said it expects an average of 30 to 40 calls a year, most of them a “life-threatening situation.”

The service’s John Fitzgerald said the increase in the number of interventions was “a testament to the skill of the crew and the sophistication of the kit on board the aircraft”.

“We are now a key search and rescue asset for the wider community, responding to 26 interventions this year alone when lives were in danger,” he said.