Coastguard, RNLI and ambulance crews attend person overboard incident at Ramsgate

Emergency call out Photo Dante Luca

Coastguard crews and helicopter, Ramsgate RNLI and ambulance services were called to Ramsgate harbour and port area today (July 20) after a person was reported to have gone overboard on a vessel.

The casualty was rescued by Coastguard crew and then handed to the care of Ramsgate RNLI who transferred them to paramedics.

Photo Dante Luca

The Ramsgate all-weather (ALB) and inshore (ILB) lifeboats were tasked by HM Coastguard just before 1pm this afternoon to the person in the water about two miles offshore.

It’s understood the person had been on a yacht and when the lifeboats arrived on scene the casualty had been recovered on board. The Ramsgate inshore lifeboat went alongside the yacht and RNLI volunteer crew members assisted with the casualty.

A short time later a paramedic from an HM Coastguard helicopter was winched aboard the Ramsgate RNLI all-weather lifeboat, then transferred onto the ILB and taken to the yacht.

The yacht was then brought into Ramsgate Harbour where the casualty was placed in the care of ambulance crews.

Photo Dante Luca

A HM Coastguard spokesperson said: “HM Coastguard coordinated the response after someone was reported as having gone overboard on a sailing vessel.

“We sent the coastguard helicopter from Lydd, both of Ramsgate RNLI lifeboats and Margate Coastguard Rescue Team and South East Coast Ambulance Service.

“The person was rescued by the crew members and then handed over to the RNLI lifeboat. From there they were passed into the care of the ambulance service.”

It is understood the casualty may have been a crew member on one of the vessels competing in the Ramsgate Week regatta.

7 Comments

  1. We saw this today – quite exciting to witness an air/sea rescue with the winchhman going down onto the lifeboat. We thought it was a training exercise or filming scenes for something as the 2 helicopters seemed to hang around for ages afterwards circling over the beach and harbour area for an hour or so).

      • Apologies, I didn’t intend to be disrespectful. I’ve been involved in an air-sea rescue myself which also included cliff rescue to a friend who fell off a cliff in Scotland. It was really traumatising even though my friend survived as I was first on the scene with the tide coming in. Maybe that’s why I found it exciting because it brought back the feeling of awe and respect for the brave people who help us in such situations.

    • Try to get the whole details before you make comments like you have. Maybe a full apology might help.

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