She survived after falling overboard from a passenger ferry 20 miles off the of East Yorkshire
The 23-year-old fell overboard from the Princess Seaways DFDS ferry, which was travelling from Newcastle to Ijmuiden, just after 8.30pm on Monday night.
A Sea King rescue helicopter from RAF Leconfield was scrambled and the Scarborough and Filey lifeboat crews were put on standby, but it was the ferry’ s own rescue craft which pulled the woman from the water.
The crew reversed the ship’s course and after 30 minutes in the water, the woman, of Welwyn Garden City, Herts., was brought back onto the boat before being winched on board the helicopter and flown to Scarborough Hospital, where she was checked for hypothermia and kept overnight before being released.
Footage of the woman’s amazing rescue from the North Sea was captured by the RAF Sea King helicopter.
Flight Sergeant Rick Jones from RAF Search and Rescue said the woman was lucky to be alive.
“To survive the fall, the time in the water and for the ferry to find her and all the assets to be in one place to get one person out such a vast area of the North Sea, she was incredibly lucky,” he said.
A friend of the woman said she fell from the ferry while trying to light a cigarette from one the rails.
The ferry continued its voyage to Ijmuiden, where it was scheduled to have berthed this morning.
Source: The Telegraph
