Santa made a flying visit over Moray’s schools a week before Christmas – with the RAF coming to his aid in helping to count the children he needs to visit on the big day!
The man in the red suit boarded one of RAF Lossiemouth’s distinctive yellow Sea King rescue helicopters for a quick trip around Moray, taking in low-level passes at schools in Buckie, Elgin, Lossiemouth, Lhanbryde, Fochabers and Mosstodloch.
Kids in Lossie made sure he did not miss them out of the count when they lined up in formation to spell out his name as he flew over St Gerardine’s Primary.
A spokesman for the Moray RAF base said they were delighted to help out when Father Christmas called for some assistance: “He said he still needs to work out how many presents he needs to pack to bring to Moray on Christmas Eve and his reindeer are resting in the build up so the RAF offered to help.
“Our Search and Rescue helicopter from D Flight 202 Squadron were on a low level sortie as part of their daily routine training around Moray.”
Head teacher at Hythehill Primary, Madeline McCutcheon, said the children were very excited to catch a quick glimpse of Santa: “We are very excited that Santa will be visiting us from the sky and it is a great way to end the term and for the Christmas celebrations to commence.”
St Gerardine’s head teacher, Stephanie Gibson, admitted that one pupil was concerned for Santa: “One of the children said that she hoped he would not fall out! This was the first year that Santa has teamed up with the RAF in this way and we hope that it becomes a regular event.”