Five fishermen rescued after their Scottish registered fishing boat sank in heavy seas in the Celtic Sea are safe and well aboard an Irish trawler and are on their way to port in Co Cork.
The Scottish skipper and his four Filipino crew aboard the 18 metre prawn fishing boat Kairos were rescued in the early hours of the morning by the Dingle based trawler, Cu na Mara.
The Kairos started taking in water in Force 8 gales shortly before midnight on Monday night some 40 miles west of the Scilly Isles of Cornwall and 90 miles south of Mizen Head in Co Cork.
The crew managed to make it into a life raft and a distress signal was sent out when the Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) was activated when it hit the water.
The signals were picked up by Falmouth Coastguard in the UK and it co-ordinated a rescue effort which also involved the Irish Coastguard Sikorski helicopters based in Shannon and Waterford.
Both Irish helicopters provided aerial cover for the rescue operation which also involved the RNLI Lifeboat from St Mary’s in the Scilly Isles as well as fishing vessels in the vicinity.
The Irish trawler, Cu Na Mara from Dingle, was first on the scene and around 2.30am picked up the five crew members in a life raft in heavy seas with swells reaching four to five metres
All five were in a good condition and the Cu Na Mara is now proceeding with the rescued crew members to Castletownbere in West Cork and is due to arrive there around 4pm.
The 27-year-old Kairos, which is registered in Banff in Aberdeenshire but was fishing for prawns out of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, sank quickly in the stormy conditions.
Jim Morrison, Senior Maritime Operations Officer for the UK Coastguard paid tribute to the Irish Coastguard and Cu na Mara for their help and said it highlight the benefits of having an EPIRB.
“Thankfully all the crew were rescued. An incident such as this shows the value of having Digital Selective Calling (DSC) and an EPIRB onboard,” he said.
“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.”
