Five fishermen men were rescued from a life raft overnight after their fishing vessel Kairos sank 75 miles west of the Isles of Scilly.
UK Coastguard received two distress calls just after 23:45 yesterday, 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 are currently making their way to Castletownbere in Ireland. All crew are said to be safe and well.
Jim Morrison, Senior Maritime Operations Officer for the UK Coastguard said, “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.”