Porthcawl RNLI’s volunteer crew were paged by HM Coastguard to a report that two people were cut off by the incoming tide beneath cliffs at Southerndown.
Both the charity’s Atlantic 85 lifeboat Rose of the Shires and D Class lifeboat Hugo Missen were launched on service making best speed to the location to assist the casualties. Llantwit Major Coastguard and Barry Coastguard were also tasked to the incident.
As soon as the Atlantic 85 arrived at Southerndown and the helm began assessing the situation the Coastguard received a further 999 call that two swimmers were in difficulty at Southerndown. The Atlantic 85 immediately conducted a search for the swimmers. When the D Class arrived on scene shortly after the helm assessed the situation and decided to attempt to reach the casualties that were cut off by the tide by veering down backwards on its anchor line.
Despite getting reasonably close to shore amongst rocks and large boulders there was a large swell with big waves dumping onto the shoreline and it was deemed too dangerous by the helm to extract the casualties safely. A request was made by the helm for air support from Coastguard rescue helicopter 187 to extract the casualties. Once the helicopter arrived on scene the casualties were winched to safety and dropped to a helicopter landing site established by the coastguard teams in a field above the cliffs.
Following a search of the area by the Atlantic 85 crew it was established the report regarding swimmers in difficulty were the same casualties that were cut off and the lifeboats were stood down and returned to station.
Get Social