Scotland’ss lifeboat crews rescue 1,000 people

RNLI lifeboats in Scotland were launched almost three times a day last year on emergency call-outs, rescuing more than 1,000 people and saving 29 lives.

Statistics reveal that the busiest station in Scotland was Broughty Ferry. Picture: Dan Phillips

Lifeboat crews responded to a total of 996 calls – the first time since 2008 that Scotland’s lifeboats have had to answer fewer than 1,000 “shouts” in a year.

The charity’s official statistics, released yesterday, reveal that the busiest station in Scotland was Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, where the RNLI’s two lifeboats were called out a total of 105 times to rescue 32 people and save five lives.

Half of the rescues by the Broughty Ferry crews were carried out during the hours of darkness.

The second busiest station was Arbroath, with 53 call outs, one more than Oban. Queensferry was the busiest inshore lifeboat station with 49 shouts and the crew rescued 128 people.

According to the statistics, RNLI volunteers at Tobermory spent 950 hours responding to calls, by far the longest time recorded at any of Scotland’s 47 stations. One of the incidents took a marathon 31 hours to complete on 14 and 15 June last year when a cargo ship ran aground on the coast of Mull.

An RNLI spokesman said: “Tobermory station mechanic Jock Anderson was on board throughout the shout and afterwards he was praised by the RNLI’s operations director for ‘his guidance on board the casualty vessel in protecting the crew of both vessels from the dangers of CO2 poisoning’.

“Another notable shout was the assistance given by crews from Aith and Lerwick when a Super Puma helicopter crashed into the North Sea close to Shetland in August.”

The Lerwick lifeboat crew recovered the bodies of four of the oil workers killed in the crash following the tragedy on 23 August. The crew of Aith lifeboat located the main wreckage of the doomed helicopter beneath high cliffs and towed it off rocks to the shelter of a nearby bay until a full recovery operation could get under way.

During the year, a total of 1,007 people were rescued by RNLI crews in Scotland. The RNLI’s busiest year in Scotland was 2009 with 1,121 launches, and a record number of 1,055 people were rescued in 2012.

The RNLI in Scotland also provided lifeguards for the first time during last summer at Coldingham, near Eyemouth, where they assisted in helping members of the public on 53 occasions.

Andy Clift, the RNLI’s regional operations manager for Scotland, said: “These figures illustrate the immense commitment exhibited by the RNLI’s volunteers throughout Scotland.

“Day after day, they are available to respond to emergencies along the coastline and out to sea and, night after night, they are also available with a large proportion of shouts taking place in darkness.

“They also spend a considerable amount of time training.”