Fishing vessel Athena on fire 250 miles off the Isles of Scilly.

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Earlier this morning a distress call was received from the Faeroese registered fishing vessel Athena reporting that she was on fire 250 miles South West of the Isles for Scilly. Amazingly, she appears to be crewed by 111 fishermen, most of whom have taken to the ship's liferafts and leaving around 30 men on board to fight the fire. Falmouth Coastguard are co-ordinating the distress situation along with their counterpart at Brest, though to be the nearest port to the stricken vessel.

FCG Press release:
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
FALMOUTH COASTGUARD ALERTED TO FISH FACTORY SHIP ON FIRE



At just after 6.00 am this morning Falmouth Coastguard were alerted to a major fire on board the 89 metre Faroese registered fish factory ship ‘Athena’ which is 230 miles south west of the Isles of Scilly and 270 nautical miles west of the Pointe Du Penmarche at Brittany. The vessel has 111 people on board.
The Master of the ‘Athena’ evacuated 81 non essential personnel to liferafts whilst his remaining crew continued to fight the fire which is located in the port side forward processing area of the vessel. The Master has indicated that the fire is lessening, although it is not out yet.

A Falcon 50 fixed wing aircraft was scrambled from a French airfield to provide a communications link and a Royal Navy helicopter from RNAS Culdrose was scrambled to the Scillies to refuel. Due to the distances a rescue helicopter would only have 20 minutes above the scene before having to return for fuel. Falmouth Coastguard relayed the mayday signal into the area and 5 ships responded to the emergency call. The nearest, the ‘Vega’, a container ship, is now on scene and attempting to take on board those mix of crew who abandoned to the liferafts. There are a mix of nationalities on board the ‘Athena’ including, Chinese, Russian, Peruvian and Scandinavian personnel.

The weather on scene currently are south westerly winds of force 5 – 6 with a moderate sea.

The operation is continuing.

Pictures on Twitter from the French Navy helicopter over the scene.