’Copters rescue 117
NZPA Nicosia Four British helicopters have plucked 117 passengers to safety from a Turkish ferry foundering in heavy seas near the northern Cyprus port of Kyrenia in a three-hour rescue operation in a gale.
The Royal Air Force helicopters, working in pairs, made more than 60 sorties to winch the passengers to safety as the ship pitched and wallowed at the harbour entrance some 700 metres offshore.
Working under conditions that a rescue official described as “near impossible” the helicopter crews carried up five people at a time
from the rolling deck of the car ferry Ertuk.
Five of the ship’s 14 crew remained on board. A Turkish official said the captain would try to manoeuvre the Ertuk into Kyrenia when the weather improved. The 149-tonne vessel developed engine trouble on its regular weekly run from the Turkish mainland port of Mersin to Kyrenia in the Turkish-occupied northern sector of Cyprus. “The blokes worked under extremely difficult conditions,” said a United Nations peace-keeping officer, Major Bill Norman. “The wind was playing absolute hell with them most of the time and the deck was going up and down 30 feet at times.”
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Press, 14 November 1977, Page 8
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194’Copters rescue 117 Press, 14 November 1977, Page 8
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