BALEARIC SEARCH AND RESCUE GET BUSY DURING SUMMER

AIR and Sea Rescue emergency services were called out to a total of 245 emergency calls this summer in the Balearic Islands, which is four percent more than last year, according to the Ministry of Public Works. Between 15 June and 15 September Air and Sea Rescue teams had to answer 245 maydays in Balearic Islands, and in the summer of 2004 sea emergencies totalled 236. In total 551 people in these 245 emergencies needed help, and the most of these were located in Majorca (96), followed by Ibiza and Formentera (86) and Minorca (22). Whilst the remaining emergencies happened out at sea (30) and outside of Balearic waters (11). The majority of these maydays were received from recreational boats (68 percent), and a further 7.3 percent were related to summer water activities, such as windsurfing and canoeing. In addition, six emergency calls involved people who had fallen from cliffs and four were scuba diving accidents. On a national level, the Air and Sea Rescue service dealt with 828 emergencies, mostly involving recreational boats, with twenty percent of the accidents happening in Balearic waters. Over half of these accidents were due to a mechancial or structural fault of the boat and the rest were down to collisions, sinking, fires and man overboards. By Spanish region, Cataluña had to deal with the most sea emergencies this summer (27.2 percent of total), followed by the Balearic Islands (20 percent).