Four people rescued after boat capsizes off North West coast

 

Four people are recovering in hospital following a major search and rescue operation in the North West at the weekend.
Their boat capsized off Inishmurray Island in Sligo yesterday afternoon with Bundoran RNLI, Malin Head coastguard and the Sligo rescue 118 helicopter all involved in the operation.
The crew was alerted to the situation by Malin Head Coast Guard who had received a distress call around 1:20pm.
The Bundoran Lifeboat was in the water within three minutes as the crew was still on station following their regular Sunday morning exercise.
Upon reaching the scene, the volunteer crew found that 4 people who had been on board the 16 foot vessel had been washed onto rocks on Inishmurray Island.
The Sligo based Rescue 118 helicopter had also been tasked and spotted the casualties on the rocks. The helicopter then landed and airlifted the 4 casualties to Sligo.
Attempts were made by the lifeboat to recover the boat from the rocks however due to a 3 metre swell and the best attempts by the volunteer crew, a decision was taken to leave the casualty vessel in situ.