#coastguard – A major maritime exercise, 'Exercise Diamond', which involves HM Coastguard, vessels, RNLI lifeboats, helicopters, search and rescue coordinators, Belfast Harbour, emergency services and local authorities will be held on Sunday 23 September from 9.30 am. Exercise Diamond, a live large-scale incident exercise, will be held within Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland and involve 365 people.
A briefing will take place in Bangor RNLI Lifeboat Station by the MCA media team at 8.40 am.
A vessel will be available for media representatives, for filming and photographing the exercise as it unfolds. The boat will depart from Bangor Marina at 09.00 am and is expected to return at roughly 11.00 am. There will be limited places on board so please contact the MCA press office as soon as possible to book a place.
The RNLI will be supplying footage, taken from lifeboat cameras during the exercise. Further detail about where this can be obtained will be available nearer the date.
The exercise director and other exercise players will be available on the day for interview. Please contact the MCA press office in advance to make bids for interviews.
Steve Carson, who is the Exercise Controller says:
"Exercise Diamond will test the major incident plans for all of the organisations that would be involved should a major maritime incident happen in Northern Ireland. We would particularly like to thank Stena Line and RFD Survivitec who will be providing vital resources for the exercise."