Operator of 999 system defends handling of calls from the Tit Bonhomme

The company which operates the 999 emergency calls system has defended its staff for the way in which they handled two desperate 999 calls made from a mobile phone on the stricken Tit Bonhomme after it struck Adam’s Island.

It comes after an inquest into the tragedy delivered verdicts of accidental death in the cases of the five fishermen who died when the trawler was grounded on Adam’s Island in Glandore Harbour on Jan 15, 2012.

The inquest heard that two emergency calls made from the mobile phone of 21-year-old Kevin Kershaw — a Dubliner then living in Clonakilty and who was on his first fishing trip in a bid to gain experience before beginning a course in Co Donegal.