By Chris De Best
Thursday morning, November 28, there is a major search going on in the North Sea, West of Texel.
In the early morning the Netherlands Coastguard receiving an EPIRB emergency signal. The signal comes from fishing vessel ‘UK-165’ Lummetje.
Immediately the Coastguard try make radio contact, which did not work. The fishing vessel was viewed on AIS (Automatic Identification System) and inmediately the signal disappeared on the sea.
A large number of ships, including the KNRM lifeboats, are searching on the last position of the vessel.
Two SAR helicopters AS365 N3 Dauphin 2 from the Netherlands SAR, operated from NHV Group are also scrambled on the vessel Lummetje Search mission and descry life rafts but are empty.
A ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke Marine) joins to help in search of the wreck with the sonar.
DIVING OPERATIONS
Due to the harsh maritime conditions, with high waves and strong current it was not possible to dive into the wreck that was already located in the morning by the mine hunter Zr. Ms. Maakkum.
The Coasguard and the naval ship are waiting for calmer weather, so that this operations can be done safely.
The services involved are preparing for this so that they can take immediate action, this is expected to be this weekend.