At 18:30 on Friday 1st April 2011 the Skerries Coast Guard team were tasked by the Coast Guard’s maritime coordination centre to investigate reports of an overdue fishing vessel with two persons on board. The Coast Guard’s rescue helicopter, R116, was immediately scrambled from its base at Dublin airport. The initial at sea search was concentrated near the islands off Skerries and also involved several lifeboats and local vessels. The Skerries Coast Guard team conducted a shoreline search for several miles along the Skerries coast, and this continued into the early hours of the following morning.
This incident is ongoing and the Skerries Coast Guard team, together with Coast Guard teams from Howth, Clogherhead, Drogheda and Greenore are conducting regular and extensive shoreline searches along the coast from Rush, Co Dublin extending northwards to Greenore, near Carlingford Lough. Throughout this area, large numbers of the local public are also assisting with the search. To date, several other organisations have also been involved in the search effort including the Civil Defence, RNLI, Garda dive unit, Navy dive unit, Aer Corps and numerous local vessels.
At 02:00 on the morning of Saturday 9th April, the bodies of these two fishermen were recovered by a fishing vessel SE of Clogherhead. The Coast Guard extends its sympathies to the families and friends of the men. Throughout the incident, the public have shown unrelenting support and dedication in assisting with the search effort and the Coast Guard would like to sincerely thank them for this.
Incident #5 of 2011
