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Displaying items by tag: 111 rescued from inflatable raft

#InflatableRaft - Following an intense spate of rescuing refugees last week, LÉ Samuel Beckett carried out its latest mission in the Mediterranean yesterday when 111 people were found in an inflatable raft off Libya.

At 05:39 am Irish time the LÉ Samuel Beckett began a search and rescue (SAR) operation 32 nautical miles off the north African coast following a task assigned to the OPV by the Italian Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre (IMRCC) to investigate an inflatable rubber craft.

At the scene, the LÉ Samuel Beckett took on board 111 people (107 males and 4 females)*. The SAR was completed at 08.34am. All people embarked are receiving food, water and medical attention where required.

Figures for yesterday's operation are provisional until they are confirmed by the Italian authorities.

Since the LÉ Samuel Beckett was deployed to the Mediterranean in late September for 'Operations Pontus',  the OPV has rescued a total 977 people (not including yesterday's SAR mission).

The leadship of the OPV90 / Beckett class is third Irish Naval Service vessel to deploy to the area of operations. The OPV has a crew of 59 personnel, including an Army and Air Corps medic and is commanded by Lieutenant Commander Anthony Geraghty.

Published in Navy

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.