Howard had the following press release in today from the RNLI which covers this story.
Many thanks to Martin Collins as ever.
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Dover lifeboat part of air, water and land search for person at Folkestone.
Dover's RNLI volunteers were called on Monday evening (6th) to take part in a search at Folkestone for a person believed at risk in the water near Copt Point.
The call out came at 9.20pm when Dover Coastguard were alerted to the situation. It was believed that a person had got into difficulty in the water just off the rocks at Copt Point.
The lifeboat was launched under the command of Mark Finnis and headed to the scene. Whilst en route the crew prepared to launch the inflatable Y boat and liaised with the Emergency Towing Vessel Anglian Princess which had launched its fast rescue boat to assist. On arrival, off Folkestone, the Y boat was launched from its stowage on the all-weather lifeboat and two crew took it inshore to search the shallows. The shore was searched by officers from Kent Police and volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers from the Folkestone Team.
The area was illuminated using parachute flares until the RAF Sea King helicopter, which had also been requested, arrived. It then began a search using its forward looking infra red camera system in an attempt to identify any heat sources.
The search was hindered when the helicopter was targeted by a laser pointer and for safety had to withdraw from the search.
Despite this the whole area was thoroughly and systematically searched and having found nothing untoward all units were stood down and the lifeboat returned to Dover.
This was the fourth call out for the lifeboat crew in seven days. The first being the motorboat collision mid channel, followed by launches to give assistance to a small fishing boat and a yacht.
