A local lifeboat has been launched to a suspected incident in the vicinity of the Valero Oil Terminal.

On Tuesday, June 18, an emergency transmitter known as a SART was activated in the vicinity of Popton Fort and the Valero western approach road.

Angke All Weather Lifeboat was requested to launch at 11.52am. The crew made best speed to the area with the intention of commencing a sea search. En route to the location,, the lifeboat’s smaller Y boat was prepared so that it could be launched and used to search closer inshore.

Once at the scene, the lifeboat crew was met by a Svitzer safety boat working on the site, the safety boat’s crew said that they believed the SART activation to be from some scaffolders working on the jetty.

The lifeboat was manoeuvred as close to the jetty as possible, where the scaffolders were requested to work with the jetty operator to confirm if the activation had come from themselves.

After about 30 minutes investigation at the scene it was confirmed that one of the worker’s lifejackets had been the cause of the activation as the maritime mobile service identity numbers from the activation matched.

When it was confirmed that nobody was believed to be in difficulty, the lifeboat crew was stood down by Coastguard HQ.

The lifeboat was back on her mooring and ready for service once again around 1:30pm.