Fishing boat safe after mayday call west of Orkney

An English crab boat with eight crew on board was back in the safety of Scrabster Harbour last night after being at the centre of an air and sea rescue on Sunday, when the crew put out a mayday after the vessel started taking on water.

The UK Coastguard were contacted by the crew of the Dartmouth registered Kingfisher just before 5.30pm.

A burst pipe was believed to be the cause of the water ingress.

Stromness Lifeboat was launched and the Coastguard search and rescue chopper from Stornoway headed to the scene, some 44 miles north north west of Orkney.

The helicopter crew lowered a pump to the fishing boat, and on arrival Stromness Lifeboat escorted the fishing vessel towards Scrabster.

Around 15 miles from Scrabster, Thurso Lifeboat then took over the escort and Stromness Lifeboat headed for home.

The fishing vessel and lifeboat arrived in Scrabster around 11.30pm.