
Man overboard prompts call out for Bridlington and Flamborough RNLI
Both the Bridlington and Flamborough RNLI volunteer lifeboat crews were tasked to assist a fishing boat after receiving a mayday call for a man overboard in Bridlington Bay.
Bridlington’s all-weather lifeboat (ALB) ‘Antony Patrick Jones’ with a volunteer crew of six and Flamborough’s Atlantic lifeboat ‘Elizabeth Jane Palmer’ crew of three, launched without delay and headed towards the casualty vessel, both arriving on scene within 15 minutes of launching.
In the meantime, the HM Coastguard rescue helicopter had also arrived on scene after also being tasked, again by the HM Coastguard. Once all search and rescue services had arrived it was established that the casualty had been retrieved from the water and was now back aboard the casualty vessel but was showing signs of hyperthermia. Two of the volunteer crew from Bridlington RNLI boarded the fishing vessel in order to give assistance, along with the HM Coastguard paramedic/winchman. The casualty was assessed and once recovered enough to be removed, he was then airlifted onto the helicopter and taken to Hull Royal Infirmary for a check up.
Once the aircraft had left the scene, the HM Coastguard stood down both the Bridlington and Flamborough lifeboats who then returned to homebases, with Bridlington RNLI arriving back at the harbour at 4.06pm.
Andy Rodgers, coxswain of the Bridlington RNLI Lifeboat said, ’this was an excellent launch with the lifeboat hitting the water in 19 minutes from receiving the mayday call. We made excellent speed to the scene, joining HM Coastguard helicopter and Flamborough RNLI within minutes of each other.
Thankfully, the casualty had already been recovered and after being assessed and treated by the HM Coastguard paramedic, we placed two crew members onboard the vessel to assist with the transfer of casualty to the helicopter, before getting flown to hospital for further checks. This was a first class multi agency response and hopefully the casualty will make a full recovery from what started out as a very worrying initial callout. Once again, a fantastic effort by all the team, it has been a busy couple of weeks for us at Bridlington RNLI’.
Notes to editors.
Photographs are also attached as jpeg images credited to Bridlington RNLI/Mike Milner. Video, Bridlington RNLI/Steve Clarke.
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