Fishermen rescued from sinking boat

TWO fishermen have been rescued from a liferaft after their boat started sinking off Shetland on Thursday morning.

The two men issued a Mayday at 10.16am after the 16 metre creel boat Majestic started taking in water 4.5 miles north west of Yell.

The Shetland coastguard helicopter was on exercise near the scene and reached the location within eight minutes, while three nearby fishing vessels made their way to the scene.

In the meantime the two men had boarded a liferaft and were taken aboard one of the three fishing vessels, Fairway.

Shortly before 1pm a coastguard spokesman said the vessel was in the process of sinking.

UK Coastguard controller Bev Allen said it was extremely fortunate their helicopter was in the area at the time.

She said: “The crew did the right thing calling the coastguard when they realised they were taking on water and getting into trouble.”