Crew of fishing boat that sank in the North Sea ‘safe and well’

Six fishermen who were rescued after their boat sank about 150 miles offshore in the North Sea have been described as “safe and well”.

HM Coastguard received a “beacon alert” from the Fraserburgh-registered fishing vessel Odyssey at 5.29am on Tuesday.

It came from an emergency position-indicating radio beacon registered to the vessel.

Having no other communications from the vessel they scrambled a fixed-wing aircraft to the area, along with a search and rescue helicopter from Norway.

Other vessels in the area also responded to a request for assistance.

A fishing boat involved in the search found the Odyssey’s life raft with the crew aboard, who confirmed that their boat had sunk.

They were taken aboard and are being taken ashore in another vessel.

A coastguard spokesperson said: “At 5.29 this morning we received a beacon alert from the Odyssey.

“There was no communication from them at the time so we scrambled at that point. The coastguard fixed wing was tasked along with helicopter assets from Norway.

“Following a request for assistance via several means we got several vessels in the area responding to assist.

“One of the fishing vessels in the area located the life raft with the crew aboard, who then confirmed that the vessel itself had sunk, and then they were taken aboard and are now being brought to shore by another vessel.

“Altogether, there were six persons on board, and they’ve all been recovered safe and well.”