Three lives were saved when the tugboat Blíða SH sank in Breiðafjörður fjord, West Iceland, yesterday afternoon. The ship dropped out of the Coast Guard’s compulsory notification system sometime after 11.00am and sent out an emergency call shortly after. SOS flares were also spotted in the sky.
The Coast Guard then sent a helicopter and rescue boats to the scene. Other ships and boats in the area were also asked to head to toward Blíða SH.
At 12:08, the three men were boarded onto the fishing ship Leyni SH. Blíða had sunk by then, but the men had managed to get onto a lifeboat. “The collaboration of rescuers and boats in the area was absolutely exemplary, and the men were rescued onto the fishing ship just over half an hour after the emergency call was made,” states the press release on the Coast Guard website.
