Airmen contribute to rescue effort at sea

Posted 6/26/2009


6/26/2009 - ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL, England (AFNS) -- An international rescue effort is underway June 26 to a ship in the Atlantic approximately 700 miles off the west coast of Ireland as a crewmember on board the container ship "Pascha" has fallen seriously ill and needs urgent medical attention.

The ship's distance from land makes it impossible for the traditional sea rescue operations to reach, and England's Rescue Coordination Center requested the assistance of the U.S. military forces based in England.

A Royal Air Force Nimrod maritime surveillance aircraft launching from RAF Kinloss in Scotland will provide coordination for the airborne effort that will include a total of four different aircraft platforms.

Two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters with pararescuemen from the U.S. Air Forces in Europe's 56th Rescue Squadron based out of RAF Lakenheath will perform the actual rescue.

In order to get to the rescue site, the helicopters will need to refuel en route. The aircraft refueling the helicopters are MC-130P Combat Shadows from Air Force Special Operations Command's 352nd Special Operations Group based at RAF Mildenhall. This is an aircraft specially fitted to refuel helicopters, but its range requires that it refuel mid-flight as well, for this kind of long distance flight.

The 100th Air Refueling Squadron out of RAF Mildenhall is launching a KC-135 Stratotanker to refuel the MC-130P, providing the range that is vital to this mission.

A very similar effort was dispatched employing these same units on Dec. 10, 2008, as Airmen helped retrieve a patient and got him to medical care in time.

"We're working fast with our U.K. partners to try to get to this sailor in time to help. We have some of the best-trained crews in the air right now who are intent on getting this patient stabilized and to safety," said Col. Jay Silveria, the commander of the 48th Fighter Wing. The 56th Rescue Squadron is a part of the 48th Fighter Wing.

The helicopters will take their patient to a location in Shannon, Ireland, where medical providers will be waiting to take him to a nearby hospital.

Cyprus police rescue Canadian couple

Pair had to abandon their sinking yacht off the island's southwestern coast after colliding with another ship and taking on water

Nicosia, Cyprus — Associated Press, Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009 09:42AM EDT

.Cyprus police say they have rescued a Canadian couple who had to abandon their sinking yacht off the island's southwestern coast.

Police spokeswoman Lefki Solomontos says the Canadians alerted Cypriot authorities early today that their eight-metre craft had begun taking on water after colliding with another ship 200 kilometres southwest of the coastal resort of Limassol.

The Canadians, in their late 50s, were picked up by a passing cargo ship. A Cypriot police helicopter later airlifted them to Paphos airport on Cyprus' southwestern coast. Solomontos said the couple are in good health and have checked into a local hotel.

The yacht had set sail from Port Said, Egypt, and was bound for Turkey.

Diver missing after searching Channel wreck

From The Times
June 24, 2009
Diver missing after searching Channel wreck
Adam Sage in Paris and Helen Nugent
A British diver was missing last night after a trip to a wreck in the English Channel went wrong.
The man, aged over 60, disappeared as his dive group resurfaced at lunchtime yesterday after exploring the wreck of the Empire Javelin, a infantry landing ship that took part in the D-Day landings and was torpedoed and sunk in December 1944.
Coastguard officials and officers from Sussex Police were preparing to interview the skipper of the ship and the remaining group members late last night after the boat returned to Brighton.
A spokesman for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency said that the search was being co-ordinated by the Regional Operation Search and Rescue Centre in Joburg, northern France, as the wreck lay in French waters.
“He was on the Channel Diver, out of Brighton, but we are not sure where he is from,” the spokesman said. “We got the call at 12.50pm just saying there was an overdue driver.”
The missing man was in a party of four searching the wreck, which is at a depth of 60m and situated 21 nautical miles from Barfleur on the Normandy Coast.
“The three others came back to the surface and he didn’t,” said a spokesman for the Maritime Prefecture in Cherbourg. The man had a rebreather, which cleans and recirculates air, and is believed to have had 90 minutes of oxygen in his tank.
After the alert was raised by the authorities in Solent, the French Civil Security dispatched a Dragon 76 helicopter with three divers. However, the spokesman said that they were unable to dive because the currents were too strong.
Two British search aircraft and a French customs helicopter took part in the search, along with five vessels sent by the French Navy and France National Sea Rescue Society.
“We placed a lot of means at the disposal of the search team because the tides are very strong and the man could have been carried a long distance if he had come up to the surface,” the spokesman said.
The search operation was stopped at 9.30pm. It will resume again this morning but the spokesman said that there was little hope that the man could survive. “He is in diving gear, which will enable him to stay in the water long, but the chances of survival now are limited,” he said.
The diver’s buddy is believed to have lost track of him as they surfaced.

Tanker with 1,800 tons of oil explodes near Vietnamese coast

22:0118/06/2009
MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - A tanker carrying about 1,800 tons of crude oil and 100 tons of diesel fuel has exploded near the Vietnamese coast and sunk, the Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin reported Thursday.

The Nhat Thuan had 23 crew members on board when the explosion occurred on Wednesday, the web publication reported, adding that 20 had been rescued and a search was underway for the three missing.

The Nhat Thuan was built in 1970 and was registered as being decommissioned. The bulletin said the tanker worked on the shelf and carried oil to large-capacity tankers.

Over 20 feared drowned after wedding boat capsizes in Pakistan

21:3117/06/2009
MOSCOW, June 17 (RIA Novosti) - At least eight people have drowned and over a dozen others are feared dead following the capsizing of a wedding boat in southern Pakistan, national media said on Wednesday.
The tragedy occurred on Tuesday when a boat carrying about 25 guests was returning home after a wedding. The boat overturned in a canal in Kandhkot, in the Sindh province. The bodies of six women and two children have so far been recovered, The Nation newspaper said.

Pakistan's News International said 10 people from the boat have been rescued, but other media quoted lower numbers.

Divers have been sent to the scene to help with the search. The sluice gates have been shut to minimize the water level in the canal.

The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) said the bride and groom were among the dead.

Diving pair died after getting trapped by silt dumped by MoD

Photo from oldships.org.uk

From Times Online

June 17, 2009


Kaya Burgess
Two divers died while exploring Britain’s only artificial reef after clouds of silt dumped by the Ministry of Defence left them disorientated and unable to find their way out, an inquest heard today.

Kaye Moss, 43, a teacher, and David White, 42, a businessman, were on a diving trip to the HMS Scylla, a frigate scuttled 65ft underwater off the coast of Plymouth.

An inquest heard today that the pair had been exploring the vessel in 2007 when they entered a small compartment via a hatch. Inside the compartment they stirred up a cloud of silt that had collected, leaving them unable to see to find their way out before their air supply ran out.

The Type 22 (SIC) frigate was sunk in 2004 in Whitsand Bay and has claimed the lives of several divers. Contractors working for the Ministry of Defence dredge up thousands of tonnes of material each year from the nearby Devonport Naval Base and dump it near the Scylla to keep the River Tamar clear for ships.

Ian Arrow, the Plymouth Coroner, recorded verdicts of accidental death by drowning on the two divers.

A representative for the families of the divers said: “The families are keen to avoid the possibility of similar accidents. They feel representations should be made to those in charge of the maintenance of the wreck.

“They feel representations whould also be made to another body who are interested - the Ministry of Defence - who carry out dumping of dredged silt in the area, to see if anything can be done, although no fingers are being wagged at all.”

Environmental campaigners say that dredged waste from the naval base is not dispersing out to sea, but is polluting inshore waters and bays.

In his verdict, Mr Arrow said that the two divers had failed to attach a line to themselves to allow them to retrace their path.

He said: “They decided to penetrate the hull to explore it as a curious person might. They did not tie on a line and once inside the silt was stirred up and they became disorientated.

“I am satisfied they were trapped within the hull and, sadly, both remained trapped until their air ran out.”

Tributes were today paid to Mrs Kaye, a talented musician, and Mr White, a telecoms entrepreneur.

Three friends had accompanied them on the dive and surfaced but became worried when Mrs Kaye and Mr White failed to appear.

Richard Stevenson, a diving instructor, heard the group’s mayday call and dived down to find the pair trapped in the compartment with empty air tanks.

David Jenkins, who organised the trip with the South Gloucestershire sub-aqua club, said that the pair had dived as buddies and planned to go down to the outside of the wreck. He knew that the pair were possibly planning to go inside, though Glen Lindsay, the boatman who took the party out, said that he had warned them to avoid the more dangerous parts of the wreck.

Mrs Kaye and Mr White were experienced divers who had completed more than 200 dives between them including on trips to Egypt and the Indian Ocean.

Mrs Kaye was married to a police detective, Trevor Moss, and had two children. Mr White had been married to Louise for 20 years and had three children, Amy, 19, Julian, 18 and Grace, 11.

AKTI N REFLOATED
Friday, 12 June 2009

The grounded tanker Akti N has been successfully refloated off Vlissingen in the Netherlands. The 25,654 gt Liberian-flag vessel was in ballast and attempting to turn from the Wielingen Channel onto Flushing Roads when it ran aground near the Dutch tourist attraction of Vlissingen Boulevard. Dutch firm Multraship Salvage and Belgium's URS were able to refloat the tanker without damage. Leendert Muller, managing director of Multraship, said: "Once again we can see an example of the ability of the salvage industry to respond quickly to a maritime emergency, mobilising extensive resources at short notice and working in close co-operation with the local authorities, who were on high alert because the incident occurred in a heavily populated area."