A MAN is to be charged following a major air-sea rescue operation yesterday, police in Stornoway said last night. It is understood the charge, under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, relates to endangering the safety of a vessel.
Earlier, in a Mayday call picked up by coastguards, a fisherman is said to have reported that the trawler Spring Tide was sinking off the north coast of Scotland, and that he and the other crew member were taking to liferafts.
Coastguards indicated a call suggested the boat was off Cape Wrath. A rescue helicopter from Stornoway found nothing there, but eventually found the Wick-registered trawler off Durness, near Loch Eriboll.
The aircraft crew reported that one man was still aboard the 39ft trawler and the other was ''sitting in a liferaft tied to the stern of the Spring Tide''. The seas were calm.
The men were persuaded they should be airlifted to the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway. It is understood one of the men had treatment for suspected hypothermia.
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