Elderly couple refuse to be rescued.

graham

graham

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An elderly couple who were stranded near cliffs in west Wales refused to be rescued during a six-hour stand-off in worsening weather.
The mystery couple had been cut off by the tide after a beach walk at St Anne's Head in Pembrokeshire.

Despite a lifeboat and RAF helicopter crew arriving, the pair refused their rescue offers and even hurled abuse.




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Perhaps its my odd sense of humour but the vision I conjure up of an indignant elderly walker waving his stick at the rescue helicopter makes me chuckle .
 
More about it here.

There seems to be a modern trend to "rescue" people who don't need it - for instance reacting to a pan pan in the same way as for a mayday.

It seems they didn't ask for help, they weren't in any immediate danger, so why not leave them alone? Secluded cove, no passers by, who knows what they had planned /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif and suddenly everyone and their wife turns up. You only get one birthday a year! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Unbelievable, truly shocking!

The article was written as though this couple wasted time and resources and were responsible for wasting all the money it costs to rescue someone. It sounded a little like the end of the blues brothers with everyone trying to be involved!

And, the poor heli crew who had to fly from so far away. The article then goes on to say, making it sound such a shame, that the couple could not be arrested.

How selfish of them to not want to be rescued. Surely the person or people to blame for the whole charade are the CG, Kinloss and the well meaning passer by. Ooh, people on the island, I had better dial 999.
 
Statistics!

I know how they felt. Recently I went aground in the approaches to the River Exe. My fault completely. Had a cracking passage and arrived ahead of time - about 1 1/2 hours before LWS. Decided to try it. Had there been about 6 in more water we would have made it but there was not so we ended up firmly aground in the middle of the fairway between 3 & 5 buoys. As we were in the channel, I thought I had better tell the Coastguard so did, emphasising that we were all safe and happy and would float off on the next tide. Within a few minutes the inshore lifeboat was out. I told them we were fine and that I had told the Coastguard so. It even appeared in the local paper - '33ft yacht aground on sandbank. Lifeboat etc. etc. etc.....' Bloody annoying as we were not on a sandbank but in the middle of the channel!

Next time it happens I am NOT going to even consider calling the Coastguard. I am now a statistic.
 
Re: Statistics!

Will you let the type people who join international rescue do their stuff, strut their stuff and be happy please. Unfortunately amongst this lot there are a number who actually do good work and save lives its just difficult to advise some to only do it when you need help. In the USA though its an offence not to obey a coastguard instruction that you are going to be rescued!!
 
Re: Statistics!

A clue lies in the quote
"Tony Rimmer, a watch officer at Milford Haven coastguard, said, "People were dragged in from all over the place.
They were quite happy just sitting there. I don't know what they were doing. They were sitting down there waiting for the tide to go out."

People were dragged in............ why?

What happened to finding out the facts and assessing the situation?

There are loads of Gung-Ho rescue services around. OK. they do a grand job in a lot of circumstances, but, for instance the Humber Rescue Service based at the Humber Bridge will launch if a seagull gets tired.

Here in the lakes there was a report of an incident last year in which a woman on a picnic at a local viewpoint, at lake level, broke her ankle.
19 members of the Mountain Rescue responded to the call out to carry her to the ambulance.
 
Re: Statistics!

it might have been the customs in disguise, or even the anti terroist squad dressed as lifeboat rescue .....
on the assumption no-one with any ^%$£" would attempt the transit at that stage of tide.

were they wearing ties under their dry bags ?
 
They probably looked..

...as if they were in difficulties to a well meaning observer. If they were OK then they did the right thing in refusing help. The RNLI often get refusals to accept assistance following 3rd party callouts.

I think that this incident was a long way from the mechanism of the state ordering a couple of old gits to be "sectioned" under S2 of the 1986 Mental Health Act!

Mind you, in Nanny State Britain, how far are we from that situation?

Steve Cronin
 
I was put in tha similar position once. RNLI were desperate to give me a tow home. I was in absolutely no distress, but someone, unknown, had phoned from our point of departure to say that some "children" (we were in our 30's) had left teh harbour in a boat and not come back. We were on passage home and had no intention of coming back. The last thing I wanted was to pitch up at my home port behind something large, blue and orange. They eventually turned away and left us in peace. When I arrived home, at around 1 am (within 10 mins of the ETA that I had given the RNLI) I was greeted by 2 policemen, shining torches in my face and asking for details and generally showing their ignorance of things nautical.

Of course the difficulty for the RNLI is that if they have been out, then burger off and then the old couple do die of hypothermia, or my boat is found drifting empty near norway, they are going to get it in the neck.
 
Re: Statistics!

Actually, speaking from personal experience, the US CoastGuard will not attempt to rescue you unless you specifically request evacuation and state the reason. Once they have contact with you (they will drop you a hand held if they can't raise you) they will ask for a sitrep and what assistance you require.
 
Re: Statistics!

Try reading the actual events of the sailing boat featured in the perfect storm. Crew were worried radioed for help. Coastguard came and ordered everyone off including the skipper who was confident the boat would be OK. Boat was OK after the storm but from memory washed up before the skipper could get a lift back (by boat) and re- boarded .
 
Re: Statistics!

a. That was sometime ago, rules may have changed since then.
b. Haven't read full details, but you say they radioed for help,if the vessel wasn't Coastguard documented USCG would have no way of confirming who was skipper or skippers experience, and as I understand it he was the one lone dissenting voice.
c. Just cos the vessel was found floating after storm, does not in anyway prove it was the wrong decision.
d. I have been involved with USCG rescues twice in last 18months, and I can assure you that they will not come to your rescue unless specifically requested, as was again recently demonstrated in New Orleans.
 
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He said the couple could not be arrested for wasting police time as declining assistance is not a crime.

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Bet that changes soon.

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Can you be ASBOed for it?
 
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Can you be ASBOed for it?

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no need to mess around getting an Asbo sorted when the anti terrorism laws are ideal for dealing with truculent pensioners. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Re: Statistics!

You and Sailfree are right. I would be the last person to knock the CG/RNLI and what they do - it is just annoying that the CG would not take my word for it that we were quite safe and had to check.
 
Re: Statistics!

No, that would be Customs and Excise molesting you on some spurious grounds for want of nothing better to do. Don't know whether I'd prefer them not being a nuisance sitting on their fat tax payer supported arses or being a bloody nuisance charging about pointlessly stuffing their noses where not wanted. It doesn't seem to stop the drugs getting through anyway does it? Large scale redundancy will be the answer when I rule the place.
 
I think it was disgraceful of this elderly couple to refuse to surrender, fortunately we have new terrorism acts in place to deal with this sort of behaviour in future.
 
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