Further details emerge of Lough Foyle fishermen rescue as Personal Locator Beacon hailed as a 'livesaver'

The Maritime Rescue Sub Centre in Malin Head confirmed that they and the Belfast Coastguard successfully coordinated the rescue after the alert was raised at 1.50pm by the activation of the (PLB) when a 30-foot vessel fishing herring overturned.

The casualties were located and recovered at 2.45pm by the Greencastle Coast Guard D Class boat and transferred to hospital by the Sligo-based helicopter R118.

The Portrush Lifeboat was also involved with the search alongside other local craft.

A spokesperson for Greencastle Coast Guard told on its Facebook page how the weather conditions on scene were ‘extremely difficult with thick, freezing fog and a low sunset bringing visibility to practically zero for the larger vessels including our Delta’.

“Luckily, we had launched our smaller D-Class and the crew were able to see below the freezing fog to quickly locate and rescue the men without hesitation."

Speaking to the Journal, officer-in-charge at Greencastle Coast Guard, Charlie Cavanagh, said the men were in the water for ‘around an hour’ before they were recovered.

He added how Greencastle Coast Guard launched the rib from Greencastle and the boat arrived on the scene where the alert had come from at around 2.25pm.

They crew ‘came on the wreck of the vessel, but there was noone to be seen’.

At the same time, Greencastle Coast Guard had sent its small d-class boat by road and launched it at Redcastle. Mr Cavanagh said this crew were searching an area near where the first signal was and the crew of the smaller boat ‘came across the four people in the water’.

He said the men, who ‘we reckon were in the water about an hour at that time,’ were ‘very, very cold’.

" We got them into boat and transferred them to a lifeboat to get them warmed up and assess them before the helicopter winched them and took them to hospital, all suffering from hypothermia.”

Mr Cavanagh said the fisherman who launched the alert is a member of Greencastle Coast Guard and ‘happened to be’ on the fishing boat as a crew man on Sunday.

“He had the lifejacket with the personal location beacon on it and that’s what raised the alarm. So, we want to get that message out there that lifejackets are great, but there are ones with the PLB and everyone should be wearing those.

" It’s also important to register it, as we knew right away who owned the jacket and we were able to find out where he should have been, who he was with and we knew we were looking for four people. That’s all very helpful.”

Mr Cavanagh, who said the men were about ‘half a mile’ from the overturned boat when they were found, confirmed that Greencastle Coast Guard recovered the boat on Monday.

Malin Head Coast Guard also highlighted how four men were ‘going home to the families’ due to the PLB being activated on one of the lifejackets.

Speaking to the Journal, Paul Gill, Divisional Controller at Malin Head Coast Guard, said it’s not only important to have and operate the beacon, but also to register them properly.

“What was sent to us was the number of the beacon and the location of that. Once we get the numbers, we put it into the system and it brings up the name, phone number etc and that’s because it was registered correctly. The four of them were 100% saved because of that.”