Five fishermen have been rescued from a life raft overnight after the fishing vessel Kairos sank 75 miles west of the Isles of Scilly.
UK Coastguard received two distress calls just after 23:45 yesterday (May 18, 2015) including an EPRIB from the Kairos that gave a GPS location for the vessel.
Falmouth Coastguard coordinated the search that involved two Irish Coast Guard Search and Rescue helicopters, RNLI St Mary’s lifeboat, fishing vessels and two commercial vessels that were in the area.
The five crew were recovered from the life raft to the vessel Cu Na Mara and were making their way to Castletownbere in Ireland. All crew are said to be safe and well.
“Thankfully all the crew were rescued. An incident such as this shows the value of having Digital Selective Calling (DSC) and an Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) onboard. Using the information from the distress alerts we were able to locate the fishing vessel’s last position quickly and deploy resources to the scene,” says Jim Morrison , Senior Maritime Operations Officer for the UK Coastguard.
Image: Shipspotting