RFA Tideforce picked up a distress call from the coastal freighter Sea Shannon shortly after 11am yesterday after one of their crew members inhaled noxious fumes while cleaning rust in the cargo hold, say the Royal Navy in a news release.
The emergency call reported the Dutch-flagged ship, bound for Ghent in Belgium, was running low on oxygen for treating the sailor’s injuries.
“Tideforce, which has been carrying out aviation training off the Devon and Dorset coasts, was only a few miles away and sailed to meet up the Sea Shannon. Once close, she sent her rescue boat across to the small freighter with her Medical Technician – the equivalent of a paramedic in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary – aboard.”
“Med Tech Anthony Hendley found the sailor was in poor shape, but lucid and his injuries were not life threatening. He provided oxygen from Tideforce’s sickbay to help the crewman until Coastguard helicopter Rescue 175 from Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire arrived on the scene, and a paramedic was lowered down. They helped the sick sailor into a stretcher and got him up on to the deck before he was winched aboard the helicopter and flown to hospital ashore, while Med Tech Hendley returned to his tanker.”
“It was a fortunate coincidence that we were nearby and were in between training manoeuvres. It meant we could deal with the distress call relatively swiftly and provide much-needed assistance in good time,” said Captain Jonathan Huxley RFA, Tideforce’s Commanding Officer.
The whole rescue lasted little more than two and a half hours.
Sounds like somebody did not do a gas free check and didn’t check for a breathable atmosphere.
Rust forming in a sealed tank by its very nature eats up oxygen so the oxygen level may well be a well below that needed to support life.
So always check the atmosphere, vent and purge it and check again.
What’s the coronavirus situation in sunny Bahrain….if you are still there?
I don’t know, but I do see an advert at the top of my page that says “FUNERAL PLAN” !!
Thankfully I already have one…
Yes, same here! Rather worrying that at my age!
Spookily, mine’s an advert for Dying Light “The best co-op zombie game”!
I though the missus was going to sling you in the gulf and pocket the money :-))
Low hundreds cases, 4 deaths, low hundreds recovered.Causeway Closed. All flights in are tested . If you have it you go to a Govt Hospital Facility. If not you self isolate for 14 days. Random unannounced checks on those self isolating. Get caught not in isolation and its up to a 10K GBP fine and/or 3 years in nick. Most shops are shut except chemists and supermarkets. lots of working from home for those that can. Its pretty good here actually the BHR Govt is all over it. The lessons learnt from SARS and MERS have helpedfocus everyone. And its… Read more »
Thanks for that. I guess these sorts of crackdown measures are much easier when you have a more authoritarian police force. I remember turning up at Dubai airport when a large contingent of Pakistani workers arrived. A crowd of greeters had assembled both inside and outside the terminal. The police asked them to disperse and, when they didn’t, set about them with long batons. Crude, but very effective!
The regular police here are far from Authoritarian. They are polite and helpful. Remember Bahrain was a British protectorate so a lot of the influences on the Law and Govt are British. You dont see regular Bahrain Coppers wearing STAB Vests as a matter of course which tells you a lot. The Riot/Paramilitary police are still friendly and helpful but you wouldn’t want to cross them. The attitude of the population is driven by the previous experience of SARS/MERS. They know what it did then and dont want a repeat so they follow the Govt advise and so far its… Read more »
Well done HMS Tideforce (HMS).