This article is from page 4 of the 2009-03-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
“THE seven luckiest divers in Eu- rope’ was how the group rescued from the water in Kilkee on Saturday was described.
The group had a lucky escape af- ter very strong currents swept them 600 metres out to sea, at lunchtime
on Saturday.
The group, members of the Athlone Sub Aqua club, spent two hours in the water, before being taken to safety.
The group went diving off George’s Head in Kilkee Bay at around mid- day and had only intended undertak- ing a 30-minute dive. However, the alarm was raised some 45 minutes
later, after they failed to resurface.
One of the group, a 20-year-old man, suffered from hypothermia as a result of the incident, but has made a recovery. None of the others suf- fered any consequences of what hap- pened. They were visiting Kilkee for a weekend trip.
The rescue operation got underway
through contact with Valentia Coast- guard. The Irish Coastguard helicop- ter was then contacted, while Kilkee Marine Rescue was then notified of the incident.
Kilkee Marine Rescue Service spokesman, Manuel Di Lucia said
conditions were atrocious on the CENA “Visibility was so bad. They
wouldn’t have been able to see where they were going. The waves were all over the place. They were thrown around by the swell and ended up 1,500 metres from where they went in,” he said.
After being dispatched to the scene, the coastguard helicopter spotted the group in the water and two of the men were airlifted to safety. The other five were picked up by the res- cue boat, which was in the area at the time.
“They were very lucky. They can count themselves the seven luckiest divers in Europe. If the helicopter hadn’t spotted them, they would have been in serious trouble. Even the diver boat coming back found it very tough,” he said.
‘This was one of the more serious incidents in Kilkee, but as it turned out, it wasn’t tragic, thankfully,” he Crate