Here's a good one...........
Sea rescue ends at council tip
An RAF crewman was lowered into the refuse depot
Coastguards called off an air-sea rescue operation on Wednesday night when an RAF crew found a ship's distress beacon transmitting from a council rubbish skip.
The helicopter joined the search when the device started to send out signals indicating a ship was in serious trouble off the Kent coast.
The beacons are designed to start transmitting automatically when a vessel sinks.
Inquiries are now under way into how the beacon, belonging to a ship moored off Italy, came to be in a refuse depot at Deal.
We would like to know who could have been so irresponsible as to throw this thing away
Rick Philips, RAF Kinloss
The RAF crew used night-vision goggles to locate the beacon's flashing light - in a skip locked in the dump in Southwall Road.
The helicopter, from RAF Wattisham, hovered over the skip and a winchman was lowered to deactivate the beacon and collect it for the coastguards.
Search and rescue controller at RAF Kinloss, Rick Philips, said: "The beacon was registered to the Sema B which was later found to be moored at Salerno in Italy.
"Dover Coastguard are attempting to discover how the beacon came to be in the rubbish tip in Deal.
Sea rescue ends at council tip
An RAF crewman was lowered into the refuse depot
Coastguards called off an air-sea rescue operation on Wednesday night when an RAF crew found a ship's distress beacon transmitting from a council rubbish skip.
The helicopter joined the search when the device started to send out signals indicating a ship was in serious trouble off the Kent coast.
The beacons are designed to start transmitting automatically when a vessel sinks.
Inquiries are now under way into how the beacon, belonging to a ship moored off Italy, came to be in a refuse depot at Deal.
We would like to know who could have been so irresponsible as to throw this thing away
Rick Philips, RAF Kinloss
The RAF crew used night-vision goggles to locate the beacon's flashing light - in a skip locked in the dump in Southwall Road.
The helicopter, from RAF Wattisham, hovered over the skip and a winchman was lowered to deactivate the beacon and collect it for the coastguards.
Search and rescue controller at RAF Kinloss, Rick Philips, said: "The beacon was registered to the Sema B which was later found to be moored at Salerno in Italy.
"Dover Coastguard are attempting to discover how the beacon came to be in the rubbish tip in Deal.
Comment