A boy who was born in an RNAS Culdrose helicopter has been reunited with the crew who delivered him eight years earlier.

Jacob Burns visited the Helston naval base to say a special thank you to some of the search and rescue aircrew of 771 squadron, the same squadron that carried his mother Niki on an emergency flight from their home on the Isles of Scilly to the maternity unit at Truro’s Royal Cornwall Hospital.

However, baby Jacob was impatient to arrive and during the flight to Truro the pilot was forced to transmit a most unusual radio message informing Air Traffic Control that the number of passengers on board had just increased by one! At the reunion the pilot, Lieutenant Commander Martin Lanni, one of the aircrewmen Petty Officer Darren Hall and the paramedic, Dave Pascoe were all at the squadron to greet Jacob and his mother and to exchange stories.

Jacob still lives on St Agnes, on the Isles of Scilly, where his mother runs a chocolate making business.

Lt Cdr Martin Lanni said: “Well we are all looking forward now to seeing Jacob, perhaps, in the Royal Navy in ten years time.”