The State’s Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) has urged fishing crews to wear key safety equipment over all their clothing at sea to ensure a swift response in the case of an emergency.
The MCIB has recommended that Minister for Transport Shane Ross should issue such a warning after an investigation found that a Galway fisherman who lost his life at sea had been wearing his personal flotation device (PFD) under his oilskin jacket.
Experienced fisherman Patsy Kelly (68) was wearing his automatic inflatable lifejacket when he fell into the water off Tawin island in Galway bay last September. He had been engaged in retrieving a string of pots at the time from his six-metre inshore vessel, Loch Corrib II.
An autopsy report indicates that he may have suffered some form of collapse which may have caused him to fall overboard, the inquiry notes.
He had been wearing a personal flotation device (PFD) issued to him by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), after successfully undertaking an "enhanced safety course", the MCIB report notes.
The PFD was fitted with personal locator beacon which issues an alert transmitted by satellite when manually activated.
If Mr Kelly’s PFD had been worn “external” to his oilskin jacket, rather than underneath it, he might have been able to activate his beacon and this might have saved his life, the MCIB report says.
Fell overboard
The inquiry found that although the lifejacket worked, it had not been serviced in accordance with manufacturer’s recommendations.
There were no witnesses, but the MCIB says that the indications are that Mr Kelly, who was skipper owner of his boat, fell overboard sometime before 11.45am on September 7th, 2016.
Winds were southeasterly force four at the time.
The vessel was found with its engine still running at about 12.45 hours by another vessel owner who had been working off Eddy island. The Irish Coast Guard was notified and, after an extensive search, Mr Kelly was recovered 4.5 nautical miles from his boat at 17.40 hours by the RNLI Galway inshore lifeboat.
His lifejacket was fully inflated, and he had drifted to the northwest and almost due south of the village of Barna.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was administered, and Mr Kelly was rushed to University Hospital Galway by ambulance, but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
