Maritime Exercise Around Needles
Oct 21st, 2008 | By Amanda Johnson | Isle of Wight News From The Island PulseIt’s not very often we get advance notification of a disaster at sea, however the Maritime and Coastguard Agency alongside other emergency services, will today (Tuesday) be testing response times to a staged maritime emergency around Hurst Spit off the Isle of Wight.
The Solfire Excercise tomorrow (Tuesday) will see a small sightseeing ship run in to difficulties around the Needles channel.
Passengers and crew will abandon ship and ‘mayday’ communications will activate a major air, sea and land search for survivors and victims.
The exercise will enable the emergency services, exercise learning points and identify better working practices for all concerned, which will no doubt improve the emergency response to maritme incidents.
This event will see members of the Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, South Central Ambulance Service, Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Hampshire Search and Rescue and Lowland Search Dogs (Southern) at work.
