FV ABLETTE
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Fishing vessel sank after water ingress and fire, crew rescued
The 'Ablette', with two crew members on board, suffered water ingress and subsequently caught fire in the Bay of Biscay off the Gironde coast on the morning of May 13, 2025. At 9:36 a.m., the CROSS Etel received a distress alert by VHF from a fishing vessel 120 miles west of the Gironde, and immediately launched "a May Day, enabling the mobilization of the Beechcraft customs aircraft, the Spanish hospital ship 'Juan de la Cosa' and the cargo m/v 'FWN Sun' (IMO: 9721669) besides the Raffut SAR helicopter from the Cazaux air base. The two fishermen were finally picked up by the 'FWN Sun', which was en route from La Rochelle to Gibraltar, from a life raft. The Raffut SAR helicopter then hoisted the castaways and transferred them to the Arcachon health center, where they were treated at 1:20 p.m. The pelagic trawler had left the port of Les Sables d'Olonne' on May 12, en route to Spain, where it was scheduled to arrive at a Galician shipyard for repairs. The voyage was expected to take approximately 40 hours.
Medevac off La Rochelle
On Aug 02, 2016 at 2:42 p.m., the CROSS Etel was contacted by the Toulouse Maritime Medical Consultation Centre to report an injured sailor aboard the "Ablette". The trawler was 149 nautical miles southwest of La Rochelle. Following a conference call with the Maritime Medical Consultation Centre (MMCC) in Toulouse, the Maritime Medical Coordination Pyrenees-Atlantic, the decision was made to evacuate the injured by helicopter to the hospital in Bordeaux. A Cheetah Yankee helicopter of the Navy base in La Rochelle was on scene at 5:10 p.m.. The injured was hoisted aboard the helicopter. At 6:15 p.m. he was delivered to the hospital personnel.
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