Crew overboard for 35 minutes in darkness and heavy seas Michael Weeks, a crew member aboard Appledore's Tyne class all-weather lifeboat spent some 35 minutes in the water, in darkness and heavy seas, on 3 May 1994 when he was thrown overboard from a casualty under tow. The coxswain of the lifeboat faced an agonising decision when it was discovered that one of the rescued survivors needed to be put ashore urgently and the Tyne had to abandon her search for her missing crew member to ensure the survivor's safety.

At 1535 that day Swansea Coastguard had paged Appledore lifeboat to say that a powered craft had steering failure nine miles SSW of Hartland Point and the lifeboat, the Tyne class George Gibson, was away 10 minutes later.

Contact The lifeboat was at the scene and had the casualty in tow at 1726, having put crew member Michael Weeks aboard because the casualty's crew were not in a fit state to secure the tow line. When the tow started he stayed aboard to keep radio contact with the lifeboat.

At 2045, when the lifeboat was about 50 yards outside the Bar Buoy, the seas started to build and the Coxswain decided to abort the entry to wait for calmer conditions nearer the top of the tide.

As the lifeboat went back out to sea she met three particularly heavy seas and the casualty rode one wave, then dived into the trough and, with no steering, rolled over on her beam ends. The time was then 2102.

Crew member Weeks, realising the seriousness of the situation, had already told the three people on board to come out into the cockpit and secure themselves.

However as the casualty rolled crew member Weeks slipped on spilled diesel fuel and was thrown overboard when the after rail he was holding gave way.

One of the lifeboat crew members told the coxswain that he thought someone had gone overboard from the casualty.

The tow was immediately shortened and the three survivors taken off and put in the aft cabin, with seats belted and the door shut.

It was then that they realised the man overboard was Michael Weeks and so, as the lifeboat was near the surf and the casualty already swamped, the coxswain decided to cut the tow and start searching for the missing crew member straight away.

The coxswain immediately asked Swansea Coastguard to launch Appledore's Atlantic class inshore lifeboat to search for the crew member. This radio message was heard in the boathouse and a maroon was fired immediately.

The inshore lifeboat was launched at 2109 to help with the search, but when neither boat was able to locate MichaelWeeks, even after firing paraflares for illumination, Swansea Coastguard was asked for helicopter assistance.

At this point one of the crew checked the survivors and found one of them to be in the first stage of hypothermia. Advising the Coastguard of the position an ambulance was asked to meet them at the lifeboat slip and, because of the state of the tide, it was decided to launch the boarding boat to meet the lifeboat and transfer the casualties ashore to the ambulance which they reached at 2128.

Search Meanwhile a Wessex SAR helicopter from RAF Chivenor was carrying out a search pattern from the Bar Buoy northwards off Saunton Beach and, at 2133, just as they were turning at the end of their run some 200 yards from the shoreline the crew member was spotted - with the aid of night vision equipment - in the water waving.

Much to everybody's relief he was recovered by the helicopter and taken to hospital in Barnstaple, where he was placed in the intensive care unit overnight and released the next afternoon.

Crew member Michael Weeks was wearing one of the RNLI's new pattern oflifejackets, which are less bulky and designed to inflate automatically on contact with the water. As soon as he entered the water it inflated immediately.

There is a second, manually operated, chamber to provide additional buoyancy but at no time did he find it necessary to inflate it..