Rescued crew prepares to fly home

Rescued crewmen of a fishing trawler which sank off the coast of Donegal were today preparing to fly home as an inquiry was launched into the tragedy which killed six of their colleagues.

The nine men were this morning at a military reception centre on Benbecula in the Western Isles where they were taken after being airlifted from the icy water during the early hours of Tuesday morning.

A spokesman for Northern Constabulary said they would be flown home later today.

A tenth survivor, who was pulled from the sea after spending more than 12 hours being battered by high winds and 20ft waves, was expected to spend another night in hospital recovering from hypothermia.

A spokeswoman for the Ospadal Uibhist Agus Bharraigh (Uist and Barra Hospital), on Benbecula off the coast of Scotland, said he was comfortable and in a 'stable' condition.

The survival of the Spanish crewman in freezing temperatures yesterday was described as 'miraculous' by searchers.

RAF spokesman Michael Mulford said: "He really must have the survival instinct this is quite exceptional in the history of search and rescue operations".

His rescue was the culmination of an international mission sparked late on Monday night when a distress signal was picked up from the German registered Hansa 240-miles south west of Tiree.

However the joy of the rescuers at finding the man alive was followed by sadness as they then discovered the dead bodies of the six remaining crew members throughout the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Spanish owners of the vessel were set to investigate why the trawler went down.

A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: "As the incident happened in international waters and no British nationals were on board then the investigation is the responsibility of the owners.

"There is no need for the Marine Accident Investigation Branch to become involved."

The bodies of the six men who died were this morning being taken to Killybegs in Donegal, on board two Norwegian surface vessels who helped in yesterday’s search and rescue operation.

The dead were due to be flown home from there later.

The 30-metre trawler sent out a distress signal, picked up at 11.10pm on Monday, after it got into difficulties.

Falmouth coastguard first picked up the alarm from the trawler, which had sailed from the Spanish port of La Coruna, and alerted Clyde Coastguard.

First on the scene was a Canadian Aurora aircraft, which was on a Nato exercise in the area at the time. It was joined by a Nimrod from RAF Kinloss.

Two helicopters, one from Stornoway Coastguard and the other from RNAS Prestwick, were also scrambled to the scene.

A helicopter from Shannon later joined the rescue effort and surface vessels, three from Norway and one British, also went to the scene.