965/2023 Overdue Vessel
24/10/2023
The service was called on by Corsen MRCC at 1453hrs on 24 October, to assist in the search for an overdue vessel.
A five metre RIB with one person on board had left Roscoff at 0900hrs on Sunday 22nd October and failed to return, triggering a search of a wide area including west of Guernsey.
Lions' Pride departed Guernsey at 1530hrs and was initially tasked to search an area of 360 square miles, west of Guernsey, taking over the search from a French aircraft.
Having searched an area of 90 square miles, at 500ft AMSL using east / west search legs with 1 mile track spacing, Lions' Pride was re-tasked to search an area further west, amounting to 240 square miles.
The search was carried out using visual search techniques and the infra-red camera, and whilst items of debris such as pallets were observed, there was no sign of the missing vessel. Visibility was mostly good, but reduced during some heavy rain showers.
Having searched an area of some 330 square miles, Lions' Pride returned to Guernsey, landing at 1855hrs after searching for almost three and a half hours to be refuelled and made ready for service