Rescuers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of six sailors who died when a German
trawler sank in the freezing North Atlantic off the west coast of Scotland. “Everybody has been recovered from the vessel. There are six bodies and ten survivors,” a coastguard spokeswoman told Reuters.
Nine of the 16 crew of the German-registered Hansa were airlifted to safety in the early hours of the morning from their life-raft around 240 miles west of the Scottish coastline.
An Irish rescue helicopter then plucked the tenth survivor from the icy waters more than twelve hours after the boat sank in heavy seas at around midnight.
The major sea-and-air rescue operation, which had to battle against gale force winds and huge waves, included British and Canadian aircraft and Norwegian and Danish ships. – (Reuters)