Accidents
Sailor falls overboard – search operation on the North Sea
The sea rescue boat “Gillis Gullbranson” (archive photo). Several ships belonging to the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked Persons (DGzRS) are looking for a sailor who has fallen overboard. photo
© Sina Schuldt/dpa
Far out on the North Sea, the sailor of a fishing trawler falls overboard in the middle of the night. Sea rescuers immediately go out to look for him. But strong winds and high waves make use difficult.
During storms and high waves, a large-scale operation has been underway in the German Bight since the night Search operation for a missing sailor. The crew member of a fishing trawler fell overboard into the ten degree cold North Sea, as the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked Persons (DGzRS) announced. The ship’s crew then alerted the sea rescue control center in Bremen on Wednesday night, which coordinates the search and rescue efforts.
Several sea rescue ships and helicopters then made their way to the remote site of the accident, far out in the German Bight, more than 110 kilometers west of the offshore island of Helgoland.
In addition to the long journey, adverse weather conditions make the search difficult. According to the sea rescue workers, there is a force nine storm at the scene of the accident. There is swell with waves between four and five meters high. Far out at sea, rescue workers also have to communicate via channels other than VHF radio – such as satellite phones.
The operation is in full swing
The missing sailor is part of a total of eight crew members on a 24-meter-long fishing vessel that was flying the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. How exactly the accident occurred is still unclear.
Commercial and government ships as well as a research ship and a cruise ship that were traveling in the sea area also took part in the search. The on-site operations management initially took over the crew of a car transporter on behalf of the See rescue control center. Two rescue helicopters also took part in the search: one from the Nordholz naval aviators of the “Sea Lion” type and a search and rescue helicopter from Denmark.
After hours of operation during the night, the first rescue workers and ships were relieved, according to the DGzRS. “The operation is still ongoing,” said a DGzRS spokesman on Wednesday morning. The naval aviation rescue helicopter was supposed to search the search area again in the morning. Several government vessels were at the scene in the morning, including the emergency tug “Nordic”.
What chance of survival the missing sailor has in the cold North Sea depends on several factors, said the DGzRS spokesman. The decisive factors are his state of health, his physical condition and whether the seafarer was wearing protective equipment.