RNLI Douglas lifeboat volunteer crew members were paged at 10.48pm today(8 July) following a report of a dinghy possibly in trouble off Douglas.
A passenger on this evening’s last flight from Manchester reported seeing a dinghy with two people on board waving at the aeroplane as it approached Douglas before turning south to the airport at Ronaldsway.
The RNLI all-weather lifeboat Sir William Hillary launched under the command of volunteer Coxswain Neal Corran for the second time today and following instructions from Belfast Coastguard who were liaising with Air Traffic Control proceeded to search the area under and in the vicinity of the aircraft’s flight path.
After a two hour search, with nothing found and with no reports of missing persons the lifeboat was stood down by Belfast Coastguard to return to station where the lifeboat was re-housed and was made ready again for service by 1.20am.
