Latest news with #lifeboats
BBC News
4 days ago
- Climate
- BBC News
Boat runs aground after losing power near Wells Harbour
Two lifeboats were called to help a 20ft (6m) vessel that ran aground after losing power and drifting into shallow RNLI in Norfolk launched an inshore and an all-weather lifeboat with nine volunteers after being paged by Humber Coastguard at 20:38 BST on service said it had "limited information" about the steel-hulled motor vessel's location but found it on Bob Halls Sand near the entrance to Wells people were taken ashore, while the boat was anchored and recovered in the morning tide. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Two lifeboats launched after vessel lost power and ran aground
Two lifeboats were launched after a 20ft vessel lost power and ran aground. It happened near Wells harbour entrance, with the boat grounded on Bob Hall Sands on Friday evening. Wells RNLI was alerted to the incident and launched the inshore lifeboat Peter Wilcox and the all-weather lifeboat Duke of Edinburgh. The lifeboats arrived quickly on scene the inshore lifeboat at 8.59pm and the all-weather lifeboat at 9.03pm. READ MORE: Wells RNLI rescue cruiser off coast of Cromer in Norfolk Wells RNLI 'Duke of Edinburgh' was called out on July 25 (Image: RNLI/Ray West) The casualty vessel had lost engine power while entering the harbour and drifted into shallow water. The Peter Wilcox was able to reach the vessel, and its crew safely transferred the four casualties on board to the Duke of Edinburgh for passage back to shore. READ MORE: RNLI alerted after barge grounded at Breydon Water on Broads They were landed safely at Wells Quayside at 9.41pm. A RIB from the Harbour Authority was also on scene but was unable to approach due to the depth. The inshore lifeboat set out an anchor and warp for the casualty vessel to enable recovery on the morning tide.
Telegraph
24-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
‘I earn £34k to make life or death decisions as a coastguard'
'The secret life of…' pulls back the curtain on professions you've always wanted to know more about. If you want to anonymously reveal all about your job, email money@ Coastguard shifts can go very quickly from zero to 100. You might spend hours doing routine tasks, with no emergencies. But then, when the calls come in, it's all hands on deck. You often get two or three or even 10 incidents all at the same time, so you have to prioritise them. I've been doing this job for over a decade. I lead a small team of officers who receive the emergency calls. My role is to determine the severity of the situation and then to plan and coordinate the response – tasking the lifeboats, helicopters or rescue teams. You sometimes have to be creative to locate a vessel, which is daunting when dealing with people's lives. What surprises most people is how much of our work involves suicide or attempted suicide. It makes up the largest percentage of all incident types. It's something we see almost every single day, or even multiple times a day. Otherwise, we deal with anything from a major maritime disaster (thankfully, these are rare), or a missing child, through to somebody who has twisted their ankle on a cliff path. We're particularly busy in the summer, at weekends and on public holidays. Sometimes the good weather seems to encourage some people to mix drinking alcohol with taking risks at the coast, which is not a good combination. Drunken swims often don't end well. A lot goes through your mind during the high-stakes rescues. In most scenarios, I will devise a plan A, B, and even C. Then I'll decide which one to go with (though I'll normally spend the next few hours doubting my decision, hoping I picked the right one). Thankfully, to date, I have. Often, it'll be apparent from the outset that the people involved will not survive. Occasionally, though, you get a happy surprise. I've had times when it seemed that all hope was lost, but you just keep going and going, and then suddenly you'll hear from the helicopter radio that they've located the person in the water – and they're alive. Those incidents are the ones that you remember. It makes you want to keep searching. We're lucky in the UK – we have a lot of lifeboats, helicopters and rescue coordination centres, all the way from the Shetland Islands to Cornwall. We also have a relatively large number of Coastguard officers on at any one time. That said, most people underestimate how long a rescue team can take to reach them. A lifeboat normally launches within 10 or 15 minutes, as does a helicopter (at least during the daytime). But they still have to travel to the location. Whereas a person can drown in less than a minute. Another thing a lot of the public don't know – and a good safety message – is 'if you see someone in trouble at the coast, dial 999 and ask for the coastguard' (you'd be amazed how many still ask for the police). The most common misconception is that the Coastguard and the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) are the same organisation. We're not. The Coastguard is a state function, like the police, who coordinate the rescues. But the RNLI is an independent charity that provides the rescue boats, made up mostly of (unpaid) volunteers. We work very closely together, but we're not the same. People also think the Coastguard does customs work, but the focus is on search and rescue, counter-pollution and traffic monitoring. The Coastguard has had quite a high turnover of staff over the past decade. Some people find the hours difficult – we do four 12-hour shifts in a row, then four days off, part of which is spent sleeping and recovering from the jet lag-inducing night shift. Others find the nature of the work difficult. However, that has meant that for those of us who have stayed, there's been good promotion opportunities, and we've progressed fairly quickly. In terms of salary, an entry-level officer will earn about £25,000 a year plus £7,500 in allowances for working anti-social hours, rising up to £34,000 plus allowances for team leaders like me. That's the same nationally, with the exception of London, so those salaries go a lot further in some parts of the UK than in others. As civil servants, we're also part of the government pension scheme, which is pretty generous, with employer contributions at around 28pc. To thrive in this job, you have to be fairly mentally robust and able to detach yourself. Some of the emergency calls that we receive can be fairly distressing – people on the other end of the phone will be having just about the worst day of their life, and it's essential that we remain calm, logical and professional. I think we are probably fairly paid compared with the other emergency services. Although it can be high intensity for short periods, generally we are a lot quieter than the ambulance or police, taking a very small number of calls compared to them. You can't really prepare mentally for emergencies. But you do get used to it. We decompress as a team, sometimes joking about incidents in ways we wouldn't in public. Even though we're fairly detached from the danger as Coastguard officers, these can be intense emotional moments that stick in your memory if you don't learn to cope. Still, the job isn't all drama; we actually spend the most time on routine tasks. Every three hours we broadcast the weather to vessels on the radio, very much like the BBC Radio 4 shipping forecast. That can be pretty dull. Also, there's quite a lot of paperwork that comes after every incident which we coordinate – including when we get malicious fake calls. We get the occasional hoax call. It seems the objective is usually to get a large-scale search response. While it may be exciting to watch a helicopter or a lifeboat search through rough seas, what these people don't understand is the immense risk the crews of that aircraft and boat are putting themselves at. My biggest nightmare is a hoax call ending in an accident for a rescue unit. Search and rescue is intrinsically dangerous for those who carry it out. It would be a tragedy if a false distress call ended in the death or injury of a responder. I was attracted to the service by the variety that the role offered. I'm somebody who doesn't like every day to be the same, and that's certainly the case here. I was also attracted by the relative ease of joining; there are no minimum qualifications or requirements. Cliché as it may sound, I also wanted to help people, and that is literally the point of what we do, every day. This job has definitely changed how I view the sea and how people engage with it. Before I started with the Coastguard, I used to think that scuba diving looked like a fun activity. Now I think it looks incredibly dangerous and I wouldn't want to do it. It's amazing how quickly scuba diving can go wrong for somebody. You could extend that to a lot of water-based recreational activities. Most of the people we rescue have ended up in the water with no intention of entering it – through an accident or through negligence. The most important thing is that people educate themselves about the risks. Those who grew up (or live) by the coast understand the dangers, but many inland visitors don't. What may look like an inviting and enjoyable place to swim may have dangerous undercurrents or tidal rips. The sea is a risky environment, and it's relentless – it takes no prisoners.
BBC News
08-05-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Man rescued after car plunges into sea from pier
A man is being treated in hospital after the car he was in plunged into the sea and overturned at Scarborough's South Bay, police have said. Emergency crews were called at about 19:20 BST on Thursday to reports that a car had entered the sea from Vincent's Pier, near Scarborough Lighthouse. A man in the driver's seat, believed to have been the only occupant of the submerged vehicle, was rescued and taken to hospital, according to North Yorkshire Police. Coastguard Rescue Teams from Scarborough, Filey and Ravenscar had all attended the scene, alongside Scarborough's inshore and all-weather lifeboats, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed. Police said the pier had been temporarily closed while investigations who saw what happened, or who had footage from the scene at the time of the incident, was asked to get in touch with officers. The family of the man involved had been informed and was receiving support, a North Yorkshire Police spokesperson added. Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
