COASTGUARD NEWS - SCOTLAND & NI          

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Scotland & NI 124/01
16 March 2001

BOAT PAIR ‘SMS’ SEND SOS

Aberdeen Coastguard were alerted at 7.40 p.m. on 15 March 2001 when one of two people on board a small boat used a mobile phone text message to get help after the vessel got into difficulty off the Moray coast.

A search was launched for the three-metre rigid inflatable boat, which became overdue while travelling the 12 miles between Nairn and Findhorn.

There was no lifesaving equipment on board the boat.

A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) says the mother of one of them contacted the Coastguard after she had been alerted by a text message the man had sent to his girlfriend.

The spokesman said: "There was a text message which one of the boys sent to his girlfriend and which said 'We have been through snow and hail but we are all right.'

"She told his mother and the Coastguard who tried to get through to them on the mobile phone but couldn't."

Coastguard scrambled an RAF helicopter from Lossiemouth, the Invergordon lifeboat was requested to launch and two Coastguard teams from Nairn and Burghead were also alerted and sent to the coast.

George Downie, Aberdeen Watch Manager said, "At 20:45 hrs this evening the helicopter located the two men who appeared to be paddling to a sandbar, just west of Findhorn, off Culbin Forest. The Invergordon lifeboat was asked to proceed to the area and the Burghead team was also asked to check on their condition and to interview them further.

"Fortunately, in this case, it appears that these two people have escaped lightly. It could have been very different. Our recommendation is always to carry full lifesaving equipment and a radio. In our experience a mobile phone can be out of range at just the wrong time. Undoubtedly they will be relieved to have made dry land safely."