West Kirby lifeboat in mass rescue effort after jetski found abandoned in Dee Estuary

Jun 23 2010 by Matt Hurst, Birkenhead News

HELICOPTER, lifeboat and coastguard crews were scrambled on Saturday afternoon after a jetski was found floating just off Heswall in the Dee Estuary

West Kirby Inshore Lifeboat launched to investigate sightings of the jetski at 4.30pm.

It was found to be unmanned and towed to Heswall moorings by another launch in the area.

Dave Henshaw, lifeboat operations manager at West Kirby said: “It is uncommon to find an unmanned jet ski on the sea, as they are not usually moored or anchored unlike yachts and other larger pleasure craft and unlikely to have broken away for moorings or anchor.

“Therefore, the West Kirby inshore lifeboat crew had to presume that there would be someone in the water and conducted a search of the mid section of the Dee estuary to endeavour to locate the person deemed to have been using the craft.”

Anxious that someone could be in trouble, helicopter 122 from RAF Valley was scrambled from its base 45 minutes away to conduct a search for the jetski user.

While the chopper made its way to the scene, inquiries were made with police, using information provided on the jetski.