Port St Mary Lifeboat Station - Callouts: 15th February 2002.
Weather: Wind NW force 2 backing W force 2
Belfast Coastguard received a call from one of the fishing vessels in the Kilkeel fleet to raise the alarm after the fishing vessel 'Tullaghmurray Lass' could not be raised by radio or mobile phone after more than 24 hours at sea, which is not this vessel's usual pattern of work. The fishermen on the missing boat tended to go to the same area each day to look for prawns. The 'Tullaghmurray Lass' is a 10 metre prawn fishing vessel registered in Kilkeel and usually fishes up to 12 mile south and east of Kilkeel.
The vessel left the harbour at Kilkeel for a day's fishing at about 1530 GMT on Thursday and should have returned early on Friday morning.
The three people on the boat, the Tullaghmurray Lass, are an eight-year-old boy, his father aged 32 who was skipper, and his 54-year-old grandfather, the owner of the boat.
Belfast Coastguard scrambled the Irish Coast Guard rescue helicopter from Dublin
and requested the launch of RNLI lifeboats from Newcastle (both ALB and ILB)
and Kilkeel ILB who are joined in their search by 25 fishing vessels from the
Kilkeel fleet. The Irish Lights boat 'Granuaille' is also assisting, acting
as on scene search
co-ordinator and a Nimrod aircraft from RAF Kinloss arrived on scene at around
8:55 a.m. this morning. An extra Wessex helicopter, Rescue 140 from RAF Aldergrove
was sent to help in the search which is spanning the Irish Sea, from Liverpool
Bay to the County Down coast and south towards Dublin.
Belfast Coastguard Watch Manager, Ian Murdock said:
"A very thorough search is on going with every chance of finding the vessel. At sea weather conditions are favourable with light winds and good visibility.
At 09:45 GMT after a Coastguard mobile unit had checked the coastline between Peel and the Calf of Man and had not sighted any small fishing vessels, the lifeboats at Port St Mary and Peel were called out to assist in the search for the crew of 'Tullaghmurray Lass'. On the assumption that her crew may have managed to abandon their craft for a liferaft , Port St Mary and Peel lifeboats were tasked to search an area from the south of the Calf of Man inshore out to 22 miles south and south east of the Isle of Man - the area into which a liferaft might be expected to have drifted in the space twelve or more hours given the prevailing wind and tide.
Clougher Head Lifeboat was also launched to assist in the primary search area 10 to 15 miles SE of Kilkeel.
As the day progressed further RAF Seaking helicopters Rescue 122 and Rescue 123 were also used to assist in the search along with a second Nimrod aircraft.
At 12:20 GMT Helicopter Rescue140 reported spotting oil at the sea surface at a position approx. 10 miles SE of Kilkeel. However, on investigation by surface units there was no debris associated with it and the search continued.
The search continued both in the primary area to the sou'east of Kilkeel and also to the south of the Isle of Man. At 16:15 GMT both Port St Mary and Peel lifeboats were released from their searches once they had completed the last legs of the respective search patterns. PSM Lifeboat arrived back at station at 17:10 GMT and Peel Lifeboat at Peel at around 18:00 GMT. Newcastle , Kilkeel and Clogher Head lifeboats also returned to station between 18:00 and 19:00 as nightfall came on.
Edited 15-Feb -02