Five Rescued After Fishing Vessel Sinks
Five fishermen have been rescued from a life raft overnight after the fishing vessel Kairos sank 75 miles west of the Isles of Scilly.
UK Coastguard received two distress calls
just after 23:45 yesterday (18.05.15) including an EPRIB from the Kairos that
gave a GPS location for the vessel.
Falmouth Coastguard coordinated the
search that involved two Irish Coast Guard Search and Rescue helicopters, RNLI
St Mary’s lifeboat, fishing vessels and two commercial vessels that were in the
area.
The five crew were recovered from the life
raft to the vessel Cu Na Mara and are currently making their way to
Castletownbere in Ireland. All crew are said to be safe and well.
Jim Morrison, Senior Maritime Operations
Officer for the UK Coastguard said:
“Thankfully all the crew were rescued.
An incident such as this shows the value of having Digital Selective Calling (DSC)
and an Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) onboard. Using the
information from the distress alerts we were able to locate the fishing
vessel’s last position quickly and deploy resources to the scene.”