Wicklow RNLI join night search for missing sailor
Wicklow all-weather lifeboat launched at 10pm tonight (Sunday 22 August) after a sailor was reported missing from a container ship 16 miles off the Wicklow coast.
The lifeboat arrived in the search area before 10.45pm and began an immediate search. The Dublin based Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 was also tasked to join the search.
During the sector search the casualty was located just after 11pm by the lifeboat crew. The Rescue 116 Paramedic winchman was lowered onto the lifeboat to assess the casualty, before being winched onto the Coast Guard helicopter and airlifted to hospital in Dublin.
Speaking after the callout Coxswain Nick Keogh said: ‘We located the casualty 5 miles northeast of the Codling Buoy during a sector search, weather conditions in the area were calm at the time with good visibility.’
The crew on the call out were Coxswain Nick Keogh, Mechanic Tommy Murphy, Tommy MacAulay, Alan Goucher, John Stapleton, and Peter Byrne.
Key facts about the RNLI
The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
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