The crew of HMS Kent searched for and found a Russian merchant sailor who had fallen into the sea from his ship. The Type 23 frigate responded to the man overboard from 150 miles away, where she had been doing security patrols.
The ship's Lynx hel
icopter was launched at first light and began an hour-long search, before pilot Lieutenant Gary McCall of 815 Naval Air Squadron found him.
The flight observer, Lieutenant Joe Keane, lowered the aircraft winch-man, Air Engineering Technician Mike Purcell, into the water to pick up the man, who had been in the water for six hours. He was taken to the nearby American warship USS Benfold for medical treatment.
Kent's commanding officer, Commander Simon Hopper, said: 'Safety of life at sea is something close to every mariner's heart and we all hope that we will never be in a position to need assistance. I'm delighted that in this incident, HMS Kent was able to save a life.'
AET Purcell said: 'We train for incidents such as this all the time, thankfully rarely having to do it for real.
'The training paid off, saving the life of another sailor and highlighting the importance of being able to respond to such incidents'
The merchant sailor, one of the ship's engineers, was checked over by a medical team in USS Benfold and returned to his ship safe and well.
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