A NAVY Bomb Disposal team tackles still active wartime relic, caught in the nets of a fishing vessel.

A party of 10 anglers, adrift in their disabled boat, float into the danger area just as the wartime explosive detonates.

Many injuries, burning boats and missing Navy personnel result-the scenario facing lifeboatmen from four stations taking part in MEDEX '87 in the Thames Estuary on July 9 this year.

The simulated large scale medical emergency was staged by the RNLI to test the reactions of the four stations - Southend-on-Sea, Sheerness, Whitstable and Margate - and was closely monitored by members of the Institution's Medical and Survival Committee.

A Wessex helicopter from RAF Marston joined Southend's Atlantic 'Success' 21 rigid inflatable lifeboat Percy Garon II, Sheerness' 44ft Waveny class Helen Turnbull, Whitstable's Atlantic 21 and Margate's 37ft 6in Rother class boat Silver Jubilee (Civil Service No. 38) for the exercise, which was later described by Capt.

George Cooper, the RNLI's deputy chief of operations, as a success.

The Medical and Survival Committee is made up of many eminent doctors, surgeons andsurvival experts. Their role is to advise the Institution on all aspects of first aid, to ensure that lifeboat crews are equipped to deal with every kind of medical emergency, ranging from hypothermia to multiple fractures.

The RNLI Medex is an annual event taking part on different parts of the coast and in the psat has simulated major offshore collisions, fire on board a vessel and chemical accidents. The exercises provide useful training for lifeboat crews and Realistic also serve to test some of the committee's recommendations in realistic circumstances.

Next year's event will occur off the coast of Ireland..