HMS Gannet's Sea Kings flew the most hours, along with the RAF Lossiemouth aircraft

Britain’s military search and rescue helicopter crews had their quietest month for eight years last November.

The Ministry of Defence revealed today that rescue helicopters of the RAF and Royal Navy were called out 96 times, a significant decrease in previous months.

The busiest months in 2013 were July and August, with more than 200 callouts in each of the two summer months.

Many of the callouts of the yellow RAF and red and grey Royal Navy Sea Kings are to mountain incidents, and RAF Valley was the busiest, with 17 callouts. Its Anglesey base is the closest to Snowdon, Wales’s highest mountain and a honeypot peak for less experienced walkers.

Almost half of the flights involved rescuing injured people and airlifting them to hospital.

Nine involved rescues of people who were not injured.

The RAF’s four mountain rescue teams also had a quiet time in November, with only RAF Valley being called out to rescue three people. The RAF mountain rescue service supplements the unpaid voluntary teams that undertake most of the rescues on the UK’s uplands.

The figures were part of a regular MoD statistical release published today.

Scotland’s crews at RAF Lossiemouth and HMS Gannet flew the longest in November, each with 32 hours of rescue flights.

Average time taken by the UK military crews to reach the rescue scene was 31 minutes.

The military search and rescue helicopters are due to be privatised in a scheme beginning next year.

By 2017, all the country’s rescue helicopters will be operated by American-owned Bristow, flying in the colours of the HM Coastguard.