Legen-dairy! Risk averted as CI Air Search tracks lost milk container

Wednesday 06 December 2023

The Channel Islands Air Search team has been praised for a moo-vellous rescue which saw them track down a large milk container lost at sea – posing a threat to maritime traffic.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, seven containers fell overboard from a ship passing through the Channel.

Six were retrieved shortly afterwards, and the final one was recovered near Alderney thanks to the help of the volunteer aerial search team.

John Fitzgerald of the CIAS said that the last one, which measured 9m by 3m, couldn't be seen, so the search and rescue crew were asked to take to the sky to help find it by Guernsey's Coastguard, following a request from French maritime safety body CROSS Joburg.

"As it posed a risk to shipping, we were asked if we could look in the area generated by the Search and Rescue software used by the maritime agencies," Mr Fitzgerald explained.

The team scanned an area of around 90 square miles to the south of Alderney, and located the box within 30 minutes.

"The crew found it quite quickly and reported its position to CROSS Jobourg," Mr Fitzgerald said.

"They sent a small vessel to attach a beacon so that it could be tracked until as suitable vessel could collect it."