We don’t know about you, but it appears to us that news of ferry passengers going missing, then turning up safely elsewhere seems to be more prevalent these days.
Yesterday a huge rescue operation took place when a ferry foot passenger failed to be counted off a Red Funnel ferry when it docked at East Cowes.foo
For safety purposes, all foot passengers are counted on and off the ferry and the alarm was raised when only two of the three foot passengers left the boat. In very choppy waters (putting their own lives at risk) lifeboats and the Coastguard helicopter got involved, but it transpired that the passenger turned up in Newport later in the day after he’d bumped into a friend onboard and hitched a lift.
Understandably, the RNLI are not too happy about their crew being called out on false alarms (which are costly and may take them away from genuine rescues) and have called for the ferry companies to review their position.
Amy Ross, South-East spokesperson for the RNLI had this to say …
“This is definitely a matter for Red Funnel to look into. These rescues cost a huge amount of money due to the number of services involved.
“Red Funnel needs to look into the way it counts passengers on and off its ferries.”
The answer seems quite simple and straighforward, make foot passengers aware that they need to inform staff if they are going to leave the boat by vehicle instead of foot.
They can use the onboard TV services, PA announcements and have poster campaigns. Surely if you let people know the consequence of them not informing a member of the crew (ie. huge cost and others lives at risk), foot passengers would do the right thing?
Hopefully this is what will happen in the future, rather than a repeat of yesterday’s false alarm.
