Coast Guard airlifts injured crewman from deck of ship moored in Port of Cork
A crewman on a tanker berthed in the Port of Cork has been airlifted to hospital with a suspected broken leg after an accident on board the vessel, .
The casualty was winched from the bow of the Norwegian-flagged oil and chemical tanker, Bergstraum, which was berthed at the Tivoli docks east of Cork city around 7pm this evening by the crew of the Waterford-based Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter, Rescue 117.
The crewman is understood to have suffered the leg injury when either a cable or rope snapped as he worked on board, striking one of his legs.
Members of Cork City Fire Brigade and Crosshaven Coast Guard attended the scene. But the fire service was unable to remove the casualty from the vessel safely.
— Save Marina Park (@MarinaParkCork) June 17, 2017
He was in an inaccessible area of the ship and it is understood that issues linked to the load-bearing rating capacity of ground alongside the ship prevented a specific fire tender with hoisting equipment from getting close enough to the bow of the vessel to execute the extraction safely.
A decision was made instead to task Rescue 117 to airlift the man from where he was being treated on board.
The crew of the helicopter manoeuvred the aircraft around on-deck obstacles, including a tall mast on the bow, and hovered for several minutes just feet from the deck before winching the man on board the aircraft.
SAR over Blackrock. pic.twitter.com/JebQuR7iVW
— Save Marina Park (@MarinaParkCork) June 17, 2017
Because Cork University Hospital does not have a helicopter landing pad, they flew the casualty to a designated landing site at Bishopstown GAA club grounds from where he was transferred by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he is now being treated.
