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Rescue of young paddleboarders swept out to sea

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A fine Sunday afternoon and the deceptively calm waters at Carlingford Lough in Northern Ireland seemed like the perfect day for two boys to enjoy one of their regular trips out on their paddleboard. But the wind and the strong currents had less than perfect ideas and the young brothers were quickly swept far out to sea as their anxious parents were forced to watch, wait and hope….   The Kilkeel Coastguard Rescue Team assembled at the Lough that afternoon to keep eyes on the drifting casualties, working closely with Kilkeel RNLI to get the brothers to safety The two brothers, aged 8 and 11, set off from their regular sheltered spot on Sunday 21 September, watched by their dad. But as they got a little further out, the breeze picked up shockingly quickly and because it was blowing from the shore out to sea (offshore wind) together with a strong current heading in the same direction, they were soon in d ifficulties .    Mum Sarah (name changed for privacy purposes) ...
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Celebrating the first Cospas-Sarsat Global Search and Rescue Day

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Today ( 10 September ) i s the first ' Cospas-Sarsat Global Search and Rescue Day' , and HM Coastguard colleagues are joining with t he international maritime and aviation community to c el ebrate the unique role they play in Search and Rescue .      In brief, C ospas-Sarsat is the system that detects and locates emergency beacons activated by aircraft , ships and people engaged in recreational activities in remote areas and then sends these distress alerts to search-and-rescue (SAR) authorities.     It means that if you are in distress anywhere in the world, by using the alert system, it will send your co-ordinate s (location) to the relevant SAR authorities. It’s estimated that over 60,000 lives have been saved worldwide since its inception in 1982.   There are 33 Mission Control Centres (MCCs) across the globe which serve as Ground Stations where distress alerts are received and validated before being transmitted to appropriate Rescue Coord...
Location: Fareham, UK
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