The Irish Coast Guard is still keeping an open mind on the cause of the major alert off the east coast over the weekend which resulted in an extensive air and sea search off Wicklow. Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent, reports.
The search, involving Irish Coast Guard, Naval Service and Air Corps resources, was stood down at lunchtime yesterday, some 30 hours after the alarm was raised.
An Irish Coast Guard spokesman said that it was not ruling out a hoax call, but the fact that the distress alert was relayed on a ship-to-ship radio channel would suggest otherwise.
Extensive debris, including fish boxes, was located in a five-mile sea area during aerial surveillance of the area, and samples were taken from an oil slick some nine miles off Greystones, Co Wicklow, by the Naval Service patrol ship, LE Róisín, on Sunday night. The alarm was raised shortly after 9 a.m. on Sunday when a fishing vessel picked up a Mayday call on VHF channel eight and relayed it to the Irish Coast Guard.
No precise latitude or longitude was given during the short message, which was transmitted on a ship-to-ship radio frequency, rather than on the emergency channel 16. Weather conditions were good at the time.
Two Irish Coast Guard medium-range Sikorsky helicopters, one from Dublin and one from Waterford, an Air Corps Casa and two Naval Service patrol ships were involved in the search. When there were no sightings of any vessel wreckage and no definitive reports of a vessel missing on either side of the Irish Sea, the search was suspended.