HM Coastguard

The UK Coastguard is overseeing an incident this afternoon (29th May) at Calshot involving two jetskis. A 999 call came in at 2.15pm and the Gosport & Fareham independent lifeboat, along with Calshot inshore lifeboat and Southampton Coastguard Rescue Team were sent to help. It’s believed there were two adults and two children on board the jetskis. Hampshire police, Helimed and South Central Ambulance have also been at the scene.

The UK Coastguard has coordinated an incident off Dymchurch to rescue the occupants of a rhib (rigid hulled inflatable boat) overnight. A call was received at 11.40pm yesterday (28 th ) requesting assistance to the rhib, which was taking on water. The HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Lydd, RNLI lifeboats from Dungeness and Littlestone and coastguard rescue teams from Dungeness and Folkestone were sent. The rhib, with 19 people on board, was located at 2.00am and the incident handed over to UK Border Force.

HM Coastguard has been co-ordinating the search for a missing crew-member who it is believed may have gone overboard from a ferry off the Pembroke coast. The Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at St Athan searched the area for the missing man on Thursday, along with lifeboats from Angle and St David's. The search was suspended at 10pm as darkness fell and continues to be suspended pending any further information. 

The UK is testing elements of its response to an oil spill incident today and tomorrow (25th and 26th May) by running an equipment exercise on St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly.  The exercise is simulating how the UK would react to a pollution incident with a focus on at-sea and shoreline protection. The exercise is testing how effectively and efficiently counter pollution equipment and personnel can be deployed to an incident.   The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is leading the exercise and is working closely with the counter pollution equipment contractor Braemar Howells, the Council of the Isles of Scilly and Isles of Scilly Harbour Authority.  During the two day exercise a variety of different counter pollution equipment will be deployed at Porth Hellick on St Mary’s and at-sea from the port. A number of vessels will be involved and oil protection booms and relatively new equipment will be tested such as the Nofi Current Buster see link to article and...

A twelve year old girl has been winched to safety after becoming stuck in mud at Hest Bank, Morecambe Bay. Two girls were reported missing to the UK Coastguard at 6.30pm yesterday (18 th  May), one was soon found and brought back to shore, but the second was stuck waist deep. HM Coastguard search and rescue teams from Morecambe and Knott End, along with the Morecambe RNLI hovercraft were sent, along with the HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Caernarfon. A mud extraction was carried out and the girl freed by the RNLI crew together with the Coastguard Rescue Teams. She was then winched onto the HM Coastguard helicopter and transferred to Lancaster Hospital. Adam Bradbury, senior coastal operations officer for HM Coastguard said: ‘This incident occurred with only a few hours left of daylight and on an incoming tide which soon made it potentially life-threatening. ‘All those involved did exactly the right thing by ...

Two people were rescued this morning on the River Humber following a vessel collision in fog. At 4.57am Vessel Traffic Services, (VTS) reported a Mayday call to Humber Coastguard from a sinking motor cruiser taking on water with two people on board just north of Grimsby dock.  The Coastguard immediately requested the launch of Humber and Cleethorpes RNLI lifeboats.  A Port Of Grimsby pilot vessel also attended and was on scene quickly and was able to take the two people off the boat and very shortly afterwards the motor cruiser sank. The motor cruiser Pegotty reported that they had been in collision with another larger vessel in foggy conditions. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch has been informed.

A kayaker was rescued this afternoon after capsizing offshore between Freshwater East and Manorbier.  At 3.46pm Milford Haven Coastguard received a 999 call from a kayaker reporting that a second kayaker had capsized and was missing in the water. Both Tenby and Govans Coastguard Rescue Teams were sent to search the coast.  Tenby RNLI all weather and inshore lifeboats were requested and the Coastguard rescue Helicopter based at St Athans also joined the search.   At 4.20pm the man was found stranded on rocks and recovered by the lifeboat.  He was medically assessed by ambulance crew on shore and due to ingesting a quantity of sea water, the helicopter was used to transfer him to hospital.   Ian Thomas at Milford Haven Coastguard Operations Centre said,  "The kayakers in difficulty today were wearing life jackets and had a mobile phone to raise the alarm, which enabled the Coastguard to get rescue units on scene quickly.  Our message is to always ...

A hotelier, retired teacher and pool lifeguard have all successfully passed tough rope rescue training for HM Coastguard. Rob Bennett, hotelier, Ross Mainprize, council pool lifeguard, who are both from Bridlington Coastguard Rescue Team and Kim Siddal, retired secondary school teacher, from Scarborough Coastguard Rescue Team, all passed the stringent tests. It’s part of HM Coastguard’s commitment to providing top level training for teams, so they can help those who find themselves in trouble at the coast. One of those roles is as a cliff (rope) rescue technician. They are the person who has to go over the cliff to rescue anyone in trouble. Without that rope rescue capability, teams would not be able to look after their part of the coast which could lead to potentially dangerous scenarios. Matthew Atkinson, senior coastal operations officer, said ‘Training matters. If you’ve got yourself into trouble and you’ve called 999 and asked for the Coastguard because you need help, ...

Forty eight passengers have been rescued safe and well from a boat off the Scilly Isles, after it was reported to be taking on water. The call came from the vessel, which was just south west of St Agnes, at 11.30 this morning to the UK Coastguard. The St Mary’s RNLI Lifeboat and St Mary’s Coastguard Rescue Team were called to the incident, as well as HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopters from Newquay and St Athan's and the Irish Coastguard aircraft, along with other vessels in the area including the Pegasus. All passengers were recovered safely onto the St Mary’s lifeboat, some having been transferred onto other local craft first after the vessel started to take on water.  The passengers were then taken back to shore before the lifeboat returned to the scene. Meanwhile, the search and rescue helicopter from St Athan and the Irish Coastguard aircraft were stood down, but the helicopter from Newquay remained on scene to provide top cover, whilst the lif...

Twenty passengers and three crew members had to be rescued after a ferry collided with the Hythe pier this evening (13 th  May).   The UK Coastguard was called at around 9.20pm and sent Coastguard Rescue Teams from Southampton and Lymington, as well as the Calshot Lifeboat and Calshot Inshore Lifeboat.   Southampton Vessel Traffic Services, Hampshire Police, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, together with South Central Ambulance Service were also involved.   Although the wheelhouse was extensively damaged by the collision, no-one was seriously injured in the incident, which has been reported to the Marine Accident Investigation Branch. ​

An innovative new Code of Practice for small hovercraft produced in partnership with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) has led to a RINA Maritime Safety Award for the Hovercraft Manufacturers Association (HMA) and Griffon Hoverwork. Awarded last month, the Royal Institution of Naval Architects Naval (RINA) award recognises the importance of the Code of Practice and the work achieved by the Hovercraft industry, which has been welcomed by the MCA. The Code of Practice is aimed at the manufacturers, owners and operators of Small Hovercraft and was published in December 2015. It was the result of many years of partnership working with the Hovercraft Manufacturers Association (HMA), The British Hovercraft Company, Griffon Hovercraft and other Hovercraft sector stakeholders including the RNLI, Lloyds, The Hovercraft Cruising Club, The Hovercraft Club of Great Britain and commercial operators. Previously, small commercial hovercraft have been required to comply with ...

Yesterday, Mike Day, Senior First Officer for the UK Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Caernarfon, was interviewed by  BBC Radio Cumbria  to mark the reopening of the A591 road into the Lake District which was closed after being washed away during Storm Desmond in December 2015. Mike was one of four crew on the UK Coastguard search and rescue helicopter that rescued the occupants of a bus that had been trapped by a landslide on the A591. Have a listen to how the crew that day did a magnificent job airlifting people to safety. https://youtu.be/gtRb9eC5Z8g

Coastguard rescue teams are ready to respond to emergencies on the coast 24 hours a day.  They’re trained in first aid and rescue techniques such as water, mud, rope and cliff rescues, search methods and assisting helicopter operations. Coastguard rescue officers (CROs) volunteer their time and skills to serve their local community. Some of our teams desperately need new recruits and so with this in mind, we began making three films last year to give a snapshot of the kind of work that CROs can be involved with. The films were based around the phrase ‘To Search. To Rescue. To Save.’ And were shot from the casualty’s perspective so that the CROs working as a team became the subject of the film.  This often meant that the cameraman had to film from some strange locations; in ‘To search’ he was strapped into a stretcher so that he could film the CROs as they lifted him ready for recovery and in ‘To Save’ he spent a couple of hours in the sea (happily in a drysu...

On a sunny evening in April, two Coastguard Rescue Officers in Felixstowe, Suffolk, were enjoying working on their boats down at the local sailing club.  They weren’t on call, but saw a man struggling in the water and instantly all their instincts as Coastguards took over. Philip Pearce (pictured below) takes up the story: ‘It was the start of the sailing season. My fellow CRO, Alasdair Nicol and I spend many sunny evenings fixing boats and getting them ready for action. Tuesday 19th April was no different. ‘We were walking between the dinghy park and local sailing club when we spotted a man swimming in the river. It’s very rare to see someone swimming in that location, especially at that time of the year and – oddly - fully clothed.  ‘Straightaway, we realised what we had stumbled into – it was clear that something wasn’t right, immediately obvious he was in trouble and needed help.  ‘Even though we weren’t technically on call, we didn’t hesitate. Our training ...

Whilst many places were enjoying the sunny weather yesterday, the UK Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Inverness were experiencing the last of the snow on Ben Nevis.  Police Scotland called in the helicopter to help rescue a climber who had fallen and injured his hand and leg 1,000 metres above sea level.  The climber was assisted by the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team before he was airlifted to Torlundy and met by the Scottish Ambulance Service. 

A sailor was rescued yesterday (Friday 6 May) after his vessel ran aground at Maplin Sands, near Southend-on-Sea, Essex. A member of the public rang UK Coastguard at approximately 7pm last night to report that his friend’s 16ft open motor boat had drifted onto Maplin Sands in the mouth of the River Crouch.  The sailor was the only person on board and there was no risk to life when it ran aground. Burnham Lifeboat, West Mersea Lifeboat and UK Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Lydd conducted a search of the area quickly locating the vessel and skipper. Burnham Lifeboat established a tow and towed the vessel to Burnham on Crouch. https://youtu.be/RrigN2CLhCQ    

Two people were rescued from the water earlier this evening in Killyleagh Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland after falling overboard from a dinghy. A member of the public made a 999 call to the UK Coastguard at 7.00pm to report that they could hear shouts for help coming from the water at Killyleagh.  Portaferry Coastguard Rescue Team and the Portaferry RNLI Lifeboat made their way to the incident.  Only minutes before the RNLI arrived, the Killyleagh Yacht Club Rescue boat reached the scene and found two people in the water.  One person had fallen from the dinghy and was found clinging to the stern of a moored vessel and the other person was clinging to a dinghy that was drifting out to sea.  The two casualties were taken to the Killyleagh Yacht Club, where one was treated for hypothermia by the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.

A short film, produced to encourage more people to apply to the Coastguard Rescue Service has just been released.   'To Rescue'  shows a cliff rescue from the perspective of a person who has fallen down a cliff and documents the moment that the coastguard rescue officer arrives with the casualty and gets them to safety. The film is the third in a series of short films entitled ‘To search. To rescue. To save’ giving a brief insight into the work of the Coastguard Rescue Service. The films cover a search for a missing person, a cliff rescue and a water rescue and are all filmed from the perspective of the casualty. The three films can all be viewed here  'To search. To rescue. To save' Coastguard rescue officers help rescue people trapped on the coast, be it on cliffs, stuck in mud or in the water and search for missing people. They report and deal with pollution and other hazards and help emergency services and local authorities during emergencies, for exampl...