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tells a bit more about that twitter update below...
https://twitter.com/BeAirForce/status/1 ... 0341252096
...and fishing vessel Lainey indeed sank.This afternoon,
the aircrew of an #A109 helicopter of the @1WHeli @BelgiumDefence
noticed three drowning people off the coast of #England and
offered #lifesaving assistance until the arrival of coastguard services.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-46101032
Two men have been rescued from a fishing boat that sank off Norfolk.
Wells Lifeboat said it received a mayday call from the Lainey and found two crew members in the water.
A spokesman for the rescue crew said the fishing boat sank about six miles (9.6 km) north, north-west of Wells-next-the-Sea.
A Belgian military helicopter, which was training in the area at the time, spotted the pair in the water and dropped a life raft to them.
The Belgians then guided the RNLI to the exact location of the fishermen.
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/video-show ... -1-5766933
It was this boat:The Belgian helicopter crew, who had been on their way
from Leuven to Newcastle to take part in a training exercise,
spent the night at Norwich Airport,
before travelling to Newcastle today.
https://twitter.com/hmwellsnextsea/stat ... 7604658176
http://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/ ... -1-5767204
06 November, 2018 - 16:37
Kurt Verwilligen said the Agusta A-109 helicopter was travelling from Leuven,
about 30km from Brussels,
to Newcastle to take part in a global training exercise on Monday afternoon.
After stopping to refuel at Norwich Airport,
they were flying low over the Norfolk coast at about 500m
when a crew member spotted the men in the sea, about six miles from Wells.
Mr Verwilligen said: “Those two people are the luckiest in the world.
It was only by accident that our helicopter was passing over there at the right time.
There were a lot of coincidences.
I don’t think they would have survived if we had not been there.
“Luckily, one of the crew saw the men sitting on the hull of their boat, which was upside down in the water.
Ten minutes later the boat sank.
“Our crew were carrying a life raft and life jackets for the training exercise, which they were able to throw into the sea.
When we are crossing the channel we have to take this kind of equipment.
“The helicopter stayed in the area for about an hour
and guided the RNLI into the exact location of the fishermen.”
As the helicopter was again low on fuel,
it returned to Norwich airport,
where the crew spent the night before setting off yesterday for Newcastle.
The fishermen, whose Wells-based boat Lainey sank,
spent about 30 minutes in the freezing water.
The pair had called the UK Coastguard for help using a mobile phone.
They were rescued by a Wells-based lifeboat and later winched to safety by a Coastguard helicopter from Humberside,
before being taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital,
before being sent home later that day.