Four Lithuanian men have been rescued from an island near the Donegal coast by an Irish Coast Guard helicopter after their fishing boat overturned today (Sun).
The four were lifted from Inishmurray Island by the Rescue 118 helicopter after being spotted during a sweep of the area.
Malin Head Coast Guard received a distress call around 1:20pm, with a volunteer crew of Bundoran RNLI Lifeboat requested to assist the capsized boat off the Island on Sunday.
Reaching the scene just after 1:45pm, the volunteer crew found that four 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 four casualties to Sligo.
Attempts were made by the lifeboat to recover the boat from the rocks however due to a three-metre swell and the best attempts by the volunteer crew, a decision was taken to leave the casualty vessel in situ.
On the crew’s return to the station, volunteer helm Rory O’Connor said: “The four casualties were lucky on this occasion and we are thankful that they alerted the Coast Guard when they did. This was another callout with a good outcome.’
