A young fisherman was rescued today after he fell overboard 11 miles south of Baltimore harbour, Co Cork.
Valentia Coastguard alerted the Baltimore lifeboat station shortly before 1pm today, an RNLI spokeswoman said.
The twin-engined Atlantic 75 which has a top speed of 32 knots, reached the casualty within 20 minutes under the direction of helmsman Youen Jacob.
A crew member administered oxygen to the stricken fisherman, who was in a serious condition due to long immersion in water, the spokeswoman added. He was given further medical attention by members of the all-weather lifeboat crew when it arrived on the scene 20 minutes later.
"Given the seriousness of the fisherman's condition it was decided that an airlift was the most appropriate course of action and a rescue helicopter was called," the spokeswoman said.
Mr Jacob commended the captain and crew of the fishing boat in retrieving the fisherman from the water, which was made even more difficult by the choppy sea conditions at the time.
The all-weather lifeboat later responded to another distress call from a fishing vessel adrift 30 miles offshore.
It was expected to take two hours to reach the vessel and several more to tow her back to short, the RNLI spokeswoman said.