Search and rescue units test their response to drama

Search and rescue units test their response to drama

13 September 2017

A MAJOR air, land and sea search took place in Dundrum Inner Bay on Saturday to test the response of the emergency services to a major incident.

The PSNI, RNLI and Coastguard were involved in Exercise Geebee which was designed to practice co-ordination between the RNLI on the water, the Coastguard on the beach and the PSNI body recover team.

The exercise was based at the Ballykinlar Training Centre — that part of the former army camp now used as a major Northern Ireland training base — and the scenario was a collision at sea between a fishing trawler, with seven crew members, and a small cruise ship with 50 passengers and crew which resulted in a massive explosion and loss of contact with both vessels.

The vessels sank leaving large numbers of people in the water and a significant number of casualties in the sea and on the beach which had to be recovered and either helped to medical assistance or processed as fatalities.

Several members of Kilkeel Sea Cadets were used as live casualties along with members of the RNLI lifeguards who had to be rescued from a large life raft and from various parts of the inner bay where they were clinging to buoys and posts.

An unmanned drone from the PSNI aerial support unit used a high-powered camera to scour the sea and beaches and direct rescuers to casualties.

The Coastguard co-ordinated the rescue operation, directing members of Newcastle and Kilkeel Coastguard teams in searches of the shore and Newcastle’s inshore and all-weather lifeboats which searched the inner bay and the mouth of the bay.

Once casualties were discovered they were transported back to shore where they were met by Coastguard officers and taken for medical attention.

A large number of body parts, from broken manikins, were deployed along the shore and in the water as well as life size dummies which played the part of fatalities.

The PSNI used the exercise to test liaison with the Coastguard co-ordinators in pin-pointing body parts and fatalities and ensuring their correct recovery and the preservation of the area as a crime scene.

A spokesman for the PSNI said it was a busy and challenging day. 

“We practiced many of the skills we learn in books and class rooms and theorise about but hope we never have to use,” he said.

“It was a fine example of how statutory, retained, voluntary and private sectors come together in keeping people safe,” added the spokesman.

The exercise was conducted under the auspices of JESIP — the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme — which was established after several major incidents in the UK to improve co-ordination between the emergency services during major incidents.