A REVOLUTIONARY new life raft designed to make large-scale evacuations from a sinking ferry as trouble-free and safe as possible, will be launched on the international market place next month.

The Marin-Ark marine evacuation system, designed by RFD Ltd at its plant in Dunmurry in Belfast, yesterday won first place in the large company category of the Northern Ireland Innovation Awards for Industry competition.

The system was designed as a direct result of the 1994 Estonia ferry disaster when more than 900 passengers died.

Mr Mark Nodder, RFD's sales and marketing director, said the "system consists of telescopic chutes which are deployed from the side of a vessel down which passengers engage in a controlled descent to emerge into a 100-person fully reversible and fully enclosed life raft. No matter which way the rafts hit the water, they will always be the right way up".

RFD has specialised in marine and aerospace survival systems for more than 75 years and has sister companies in Italy and the US. More than 80 per cent of its products are exported and the Dunmurry site employs 260 people.