Maintenance trip turned ‘Mayday’ rescue as PML crew support efforts by RNLI

Plymouth Inshore Lifeboat (ILB) alongside PML Explorer with RNLI casualty care trained crew member onboard assessing the recovered diver

The alarm was raised at 10.52am by the dive vessel to Falmouth Coastguard after only one of the two divers had surfaced in their planned area.

The Plymouth Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) launched both their Severn Class All-Weather Lifeboat ‘Sybil Mullen Glover’ and their Atlantic 85 Inshore Lifeboat ‘Annabel E Jones’, and the coastguard Search & Rescue Helicopter (Rescue 924) from Newquay made best speed to the location of the surfaced divers to begin a search pattern.

At that time, shortly after leaving the L4 data buoy (about 6 nautical miles south of Plymouth), the PML Explorer crew Prof. James Fishwick, John ‘Mac’ McDonald and Jani Pewter received a DSC distress alert (a type of electronic distress message, similar to a voice mayday call) on their VHF radio, followed by a mayday relay from Falmouth coastguard, asking nearby vessels to help join efforts to search for the diver.

After realising they were close to the reported area of the missing diver, PML technologist Jani Pewter responded to the coastguard to confirm the coordinates and offered to join the search, while PML’s Head of Marine Operations Group John ‘Mac’ McDonald increased speed and navigated the PML Explorer towards the area, and Prof. James Fishwick – Head of Marine Technology and Autonomy – kept lookout for the diver, over a large area.

Only ten minutes following the initial Mayday call, while heading towards the western end of Plymouth Breakwater, Prof. Fishwick spotted a red inflatable surface marker buoy which was tethered to the diver.

The team quickly made their way to the casualty, and after informing the coastguard of their exact position, established that the casualty was OK and supported them until the arrival of the Inshore Lifeboat shortly afterwards.

Once on scene, the RNLI transferred one of their volunteer crew members over to PML Explorer to help remove the diver’s equipment and recover them into Explorer to begin casualty care. Following an assessment, with no action required, the casualty was able to return to their dive vessel.

There were other PML colleagues nearby aboard the KMS Valonia (whilst our own research vessel Plymouth Quest undergoes maintenance), which also joined the search. The crew were just returning from sampling at our scientific sites at E1 and L4 when the mayday came in.

The crew on board included: Tristan Jaycock (TJ), Georgina Ramm, Andy Dunn, Tom Mesher and Ross Sanders. Like our crew on the PML Explorer, our crew on the KMS Valonia also responded to the Mayday, communicating with the Coastguard via VHF radio and joining search efforts.

Watch now: Recording of vessel AIS tracks from MarineTraffic.com showing the rescue efforts from the RNLI team, in addition to the PML crews on board the PML Explorer and KMS Valonia:

Prof. James Fishwick said:

“I have been involved in vessel operations at the Western Channel Observatory for 25 years, and this was the first Mayday incident I have encountered. My team is highly trained, and I was immensely proud of their professionalism throughout the search and rescue operation. When we received the Mayday call that a diver had been missing for over an hour, you tend to fear the worst, and time is of the essence. It was a tremendous relief when we located the diver, who was cold but otherwise safe and well. While all PML vessel crew members are trained in first aid as part of their qualifications, it was a further relief when the lifeboat arrived, staffed by professionals specialising in rescue and advanced casualty care. I’m grateful we were able to contribute to safely returning the diver to their vessel.”

John ‘Mac’ McDonald commented:

“As part of our crew’s small boat training, our team are always prepared for man-overboard scenarios, but I think this could be the first time in PML’s history we’ve actively supported the RNLI with their rescue efforts. I think it was a bit of a case of ‘right place, right time’, we were already heading in that direction so a lot of this was luck. We’re all just glad to see a happy outcome. Science was the mission, but people will always be our priority – we had a good day and achieved both. I am proud of how well our team performed in this unexpected situation.”

Jani Pewter added:

“We were able to quickly establish the approximate area of the missing diver, and we just happened to have the right conditions to assist effectively – a well-trained crew in small and nimble high-speed craft like PML Explorer is the perfect combination for responding to this type of emergency. I hoped the diver would have deployed a surface marker buoy (SMB) which would help with locating them if they were underwater, and that’s exactly what had happened – it was just ten minutes from initially departing the L4 buoy to James spotting an SMB and us reaching the diver. The adrenaline was certainly running high as I got back onto the radio to inform the coastguard that we had located the casualty – you tend to fear the worst when you hear about overdue divers – but I am very glad on this occasion they had surfaced about an hour previously and had just been drifting with the tide. I think they were very relieved that someone had finally spotted them!”

In a twist of fate, Guy Hooper, PhD researcher at PML was also at the scene. At the same time as undertaking his doctorate, Guy is also a RNLI volunteer, and heard the call come in whilst at the laboratory and immediately joined the RNLI crew to go out.

Guy Hooper said:

“Both of Plymouth’s lifeboats were tasked by the coastguard to locate a missing diver just south of Plymouth breakwater. Shortly after launching, we were notified that the diver had been found by PML Explorer. We conducted a casualty care assessment, and the diver was returned to their vessel. Big thanks to my colleagues at PML for their help, a great outcome.”

What is a ‘Mayday’ call?

“Mayday” comes from the French phrase “m’aidez” or” m’aider”, which mean “help me”, and is an internationally-recognised radio distress signal used by ships and aircraft. The word came into the English language in 1923 in response to increased air and naval traffic over the Channel.

Pilots and mariners still use “Mayday” today over radio communications to request immediate assistance, and the word is typically repeated three times in a row during the initial emergency declaration. It is the most serious type of distress call and is only used when there is imminent risk to either life or vessel.

‘Mayday’ captures the moral and legal duty of ships to rescue a person or persons in danger at sea, enshrined in the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.

Modern VHF radios equipped with “DSC” functionality can transmit an electronic distress message at the push of a button which includes various information – such as the type of the emergency, the name of the vessel, and even its exact coordinates – and is automatically received by all nearby vessels (and the coastguard) which also have DSC-equipped radios.