Safe evacuation of a fisherman from Guilvinec, at sea, 250 km from the coast.

The weather may well have played a role in the evacuation of a crew member from the French fishing vessel Alya that is currently fishing on the edge of the Continental Shelf west of Brittany.

The sailor from Guilvinec is now in hospital at the Cavale-Blanche in Brest (Finistère). He was  at sea, this Sunday, November 3, 2019 late morning, 250 km off the tip of Brittany.
A doctor at the centre of medical consultation maritime, based in Toulouse, warned the Cross Corsen (in the north-west of Brest) of the necessity to evacuate the sailor.

The man is part of the crew of five sailors aboard the Alya, a trawler 25 m of the company Scapêche, which belongs to the group of Musketeers.

He seems to be suffering from internal bleeding. His boat is more than 140 nautical miles (about 250 kilometers) west of the tip of Brittany. This forced the authorities to send the NH90 helicopter from the Lanvéoc base for evacuation and a small Faclon 50 aircraft (based at Lann Bihoué) to ensure inter alia communication between all parties involved. the sea is very difficult: the wind blows at 7 Beaufort (between 50 and 60 km / h), there is a heavy sea and the cloud ceiling is low with heavy rain.

The rescuers airlifted the patient aboard the helicopter at 11 h 08. He is  now being taken care of by staff at the Hospital of La Cavale-Blanche.

Story courtesy of L'Ouest France and the photo Maritime National

"Reegan was the first fisherman I’ve taken out of the water who was conscious and alive, but he was also the first fisherman I took out of the water wearing a lifejacket"

‘I’ve been doing search and rescue for nearly 20 years and Reegan was the first fisherman I’ve taken out of the water who was conscious and alive, but he was also the first fisherman I took out of the water wearing a lifejacket.’

These are the powerful words of Coastguard Winchman ‘Spike’ Hughes who lifted Reegan Green out of the water when he was washed overboard in treacherous conditions nearly two weeks ago.

HM Coastguard Newquay helicopter crew, Capt Sharky Finn, Capt Jörg "Yogi" Brunner, Winch Operator Phil Warrington and Winchman Mark ‘Spike’ Hughes met fisherman Reegan Green for the first time after his dramatic rescue off the Salcombe coast.

Spike went on to say: ‘The sea state was pretty big that night – about 20ft with 70 knot winds, so it was quite a horrific night. It’s the type of night you don’t want to be going outside in. I saw Reegan looking at me from the water - I could see the whites of his eyes and he could see the whites of mine and that was a good moment. By then I was only a matter of feet away and within about two minutes the rescue was complete. It’s really, really good to see him here today, having an outcome such as this is absolutely fantastic.’

You can read more about Reegan's dramatic rescue here:

Fisherman wearing a lifejacket rescued alive from very rough seas after falling overboard.

A fisherman who went overboard off the coast of Salcombe earlier this morning has been rescued by the HM Coastguard Newquay helicopter after being in very rough seas for an hour.

HM Coastguard was coordinating the large scale search and rescue mission for the missing fisherman who went overboard 25nm south east of Salcombe.

The fishing vessel made a Mayday broadcast minutes before 4.45am today and the HM search and rescue helicopter based at Newquay quickly made their way sent to the scene, alongside Salcombe and Torbay RNLI All Weather Lifeboats.

A French Navy aircraft who has been training in the area at the time and a number of fishing vessels responded to a Mayday Relay broadcast issued by HM Coastguard and also joined the search.

The fisherman was located by his own crewmates at 5.45am and the Newquay Coastguard helicopter was alerted to his position and winched him from the water. He had been in the water for an hour in 3-4m seas and 9 degrees sea temperature and was suffering from the cold.

The Newquay Coastguard helicopter flew him directly to Plymouth Hospital.

HM Coastguard Duty Controller Dai Jones said: ‘We could not have hoped for a better outcome. Our own Coastguard helicopter, A French Navy helicopter, along with a number of fishing vessels and the RNLI, had been searching for an hour this morning in very rough seas and challenging weather conditions. Thankfully, the fisherman was wearing a lifejacket, which no doubt aided his survival and enabled his crewmates to find him quickly.

‘By taking this simple safety precaution means that when he fell into the water his survival time increased significantly, despite the cold water and the horrendous weather conditions.

‘This could have been a very different outcome today had he not been wearing his lifejacket and we commend his actions, which have assisted in saving his life. We wish him a speedy recovery.’

Speaking after today’s dramatic rescue, Captain Jörg Brunner from HM Coastguard Newquay helicopter said: ‘This is an incredible rescue story. We got the call to help just 5 minutes after the fisherman had fallen overboard. Despite horrendous weather conditions on scene with winds in excess of 60 knots, we were preparing ourselves for an extensive search and rescue operation. The fishing crew had done all the right things and even from a distance we quickly spotted the smoke marker and the life ring they had released.

‘The fisherman was spotted by his crew about 40m on the starboard side of his fishing vessel, some 400m away from smoke marker position.

‘We flew towards that position and saw the casualty immediately as he was wearing a reflective life jacket.

‘We lowered our winchman into the water in very rough conditions and conducted a double winch recovery which only took about 2 minutes.

‘Once on board we flew straight to Derriford Hospital and handed him over to A&E department, where we have now heard that he’s doing well and in good spirits.’

Fisherman wearing a lifejacket rescued alive from very rough seas after falling overboard from a Brixham beam trawler.

A fisherman who went overboard off the coast of Salcombe earlier this morning has been rescued by the HM Coastguard Newquay helicopter after being in very rough seas for an hour.  HM Coastguard was coordinating the large scale search and rescue mission for the missing fisherman who went overboard 25nm south east of Salcombe.

The fishing vessel made a Mayday broadcast minutes before 4.45am today and the HM search and rescue helicopter based at Newquay quickly made their way sent to the scene, alongside Salcombe and Torbay RNLI All Weather Lifeboats.  

A French Navy aircraft who has been training in the area at the time and a number of fishing vessels responded to a Mayday Relay broadcast issued by HM Coastguard and also joined the search.

The fisherman was located by his own crewmates at 5.45am and the Newquay Coastguard helicopter was alerted to his position and winched him from the water.  He had been in the water for an hour in 3-4m seas and 9 degrees sea temperature and was suffering from the cold.The Newquay Coastguard helicopter flew him directly to Plymouth Hospital.

HM Coastguard Duty Controller Dai Jones said: ‘We could not have hoped for a better outcome.  Our own Coastguard helicopter, A French Navy helicopter, along with a number of fishing vessels and the RNLI, had been searching for an hour this morning in very rough seas and challenging weather conditions.  Thankfully, the fisherman was wearing a lifejacket, which no doubt aided his survival and enabled his crewmates to find him quickly.  

‘By taking this simple safety precaution means that when he fell into the water his survival time increased significantly, despite the cold water and the horrendous weather conditions.   

‘This could have been a very different outcome today had he not been wearing his lifejacket and we commend his actions, which have assisted in saving his life.  We wish him a speedy recovery.’  

Speaking after today’s dramatic rescue, Captain Jörg Brunner from HM Coastguard Newquay helicopter said:  ‘This is an incredible rescue story.  We got the call to help just 5 minutes after the  fisherman had fallen overboard.  Despite horrendous weather conditions on scene with winds in excess of 60 knots, we were preparing ourselves for an extensive search and rescue operation.  The fishing crew had done all the right things and even from a distance we quickly spotted the smoke marker and the life ring they had released.

‘The fisherman was spotted by his crew about 40m on the starboard side of his fishing vessel, some 400m away from smoke marker position. ‘We flew towards that position and saw the casualty immediately as he was wearing a reflective life jacket. ‘We lowered our winchman into the water in very rough conditions and conducted a double winch recovery which only took about 2 minutes. ‘Once on board we flew straight to Derriford Hospital and handed him over to A&E department, where we have now heard that he’s doing well and in good spirits.’

Crewman with crushed hand airlifted by SAR helicopter from the Newlyn netter, Ajax.

Once more the guys who man the helicopters that provide the SAR service around our coastline and do such a professional job no matter what the conditions.

Having gone through an SAR rescue situation many years ago with a similar injury to a crewman it still impresses when you appreciate that this entire operation is carried out with a minimum of communication between the helicopter and the boat - in my case I was reminded by the SAR navigator to "maintain my present course and speed". That was it. Such is the degree of professionalism and the training both SAR aircrews. (editor)

In this instance the young fisherman, Gary 'Hoody' Hood sustained a serious injury to his hand in the very rough sea conditions while shooting the nets away. Skipper Alan had quickly called the Coastguard asking for help just before 4am on Sunday 18 November.

Flying through gale force conditions in complete darkness, the Newquay Coastguard helicopter arrived on scene around 5.30am and winched the fisherman onboard, flying him directly to Derriford Hospital. 

At the time it looked like he might loose all four fingers and part of his hand. However, once surgery was started the surgeon managed to keep his ring and baby finger by moving them closer to his (thankfully) undamaged thumb. Linda Dwan, wife of skipper Alan said, "The surgeon said that the quality of first aid given before the helicopter arrived, had a huge say in how much of his hand they were able to save in the end, super proud of the crew for this, they all pulled together for him". Further treatment will be needed.

The helicopter crew - Capt Yogi Brunner, Co-Pilot Debdash Bhattacharya, Winch Operator Mark Stevens and Winchman Mark Hughes - praised the quick-thinking actions of the fishing vessel crew who had treated and bandaged their mate's hand before they had arrived on scene. We wish him a speedy recovery.

NB: Because of the heavy seas and gale force winds this rescue saw the helicopter crew deploy a 'high-line' in order to rescue the injured crewman from the Ajax. The MMO notice below outlines the correct procedure for the crew of any vessel involved in such a rescue.

Kudos to our Search & Rescue crews who are there when we need them most.

Incredible footage captured this morning as a HM Coastguard winchman boards a heaving fishing boat in rough seas to rescue an unwell crewman.

HM Coastguard received the call for help this morning just after 7.30am reporting an unwell crewman onboard the vessel, 50nm south east of Sumburgh, who needed urgent assistance.

The HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Sumburgh flew to the vessel and on arrival it took several minutes for the winchman to land as the seas rocked the vessel from side to side.

Once onboard the winchman quickly winches the crewman into the helicopter where he was taken to Lerwick for onward transfer to hospital by the ambulance service.

Fisherman airlifted to hospital after boat explodes under his feet.

Sennen lifeboat tows in the GRP fastworker, Hope SS65...

to a berth in Newlyn after she suffered an explosion...

which blew out all the wheelhouse windows...

most of the deck starboard side...

and most of the deck of the 6m GRP hulled vessel...

causing the skipper, who is understood not to be seriously injured, to be airlifted to Treliske Hospital.

UK Coastguard helicopter flies 100 miles just inside French waters to evacuate unwell crewman from Newlyn beam trawler, Resurgam PZ1001

While most of us were still asleep this morning, a blast of cold sea air was being felt by UK Coastguard Paramedic Winchman Niall Hanson as he was winched onto a UK fishing vessel 100 nautical miles south of Newquay to assist an unwell crewman.

Co-ordinated by the UK Coastguard Operations Centre at Falmouth, the Newquay search and rescue helicopter flew over rough seas and just inside French waters to evacuate the sick crewman from the UK vessel. The crewman was airlifted to Treliske Hospital by the helicopter crew of Captain Mark Coupland, Co-Pilot ‘Sharky’ Finn, Paramedic Winch Operator Jason Bibby and Paramedic Winchman Niall Hanson. His condition was not thought to be life-threatening and we wish him a speedy recovery.

The footage was filmed by the helicopter team.

Clearly visible in the video during the rescue, both beam trawls are suspended from the end of the derricks to help stabilise the boat and reduce the degree of roll while the skipper steams at full speed just off the wind. This helps reduce any dramatic variations in movement which, given the proximity of the stern mast to the high-line can only make the operation safer. Notice how the winchman applies opposite pressure to the high-line as the winch reels in the diver and casualty to minimise the sway.

All skippers know the correct procedure for such an incident, so in all likelihood the only contact between the boat and the rescue helicopter would have been when the navigator calls the skipper of the boat and reminds him to "please maintain your present course and speed" - the height of a professional operation for which the fishing community of the UK can only be ever grateful.

Penlee and Sennen lifeboats off Porthcurno caught on the Minack webcam!

Both @Penleelifeboat and Sennen were called out along with the SAR helicopter from Newquay...

and were caught on camera by the Minack Theatre webcam!

Search goes on for the missing inshore scalloper JMT.

The inshore scalloper JMT is currently missing with two people on board. 

Fowey lifeboat has joined Looe and Plymouth lifeboats currently engaged in a rigorous search of the area based on an estimated position between Looe and Rame Head.

7th May 2007, Gavroche sinks off the Breton coast north of Conquet

 

 

Not all vessels capsize and sink when they are full of water - in this instance the skipper and crew were all able to make it to aonther vessel safely.

 

Here is a report at the time:

 

On Monday, May 7, 2007 to 3:50 p.m., CROSS CORSEN was alerted by the trawler "Christda II" as "Gavroche" (a 19-meter trawler registered in Guilvinec, on board  were 5 crew members), the engine compartment was flooded while they were about 70 kilometers west of Conquet.

The "Christda II" immediately went to assist the "Gavroche". Four crew members were evacuated on the "Christda II" while the skipper of the trawler "Gavroche" remained on board to try to control the waterway.

At the same time, "Latouche Treville" Commander of the Navy was contacted by order of the Marine Operations Centre (COM Brest), it then implements its Lynx helicopter on board with a plunger and a motor pump.

With the arrival of the helicopter in the area, due to the impossibility of the ingress of water, the skipper of the trawler was removed with the help of divers from the helicopter on the "Christda II" remained close.

Shortly before 21 h00 May 7, the trawler "Gavroche" sank in one hundred meters of water.

Urgent Notice to Mariners was issued to indicate the position of the wreck.