Coast Guard saves woman floating in the North Sea 10 kilometers off Dutch coast
A search-and-rescue team from the Dutch Coast Guard used a helicopter to rescue a woman from the North Sea on Wednesday morning. She was floating about 11 kilometers off the coast west of Scheveningen and Wassenaar in Zuid-Holland.
She was displaying symptoms of hypothermia and was taken to an area hospital. Her condition was not released.
A Belgian yacht that happened to be sailing in the area spotted the woman waving in the water. The people on board the yacht tried to get her out of the water, but could not manage it. They requested assistance from the Coast Guard, who immediately deployed a crew by helicopter. Records show the team was dispatched at about 11:05 a.m.
The yacht stayed near the woman, making it easy for the Coast Guard to spot her. She was rescued a few minutes later. "Fortunately, the woman was wearing a survival suit," a spokesperson for the Coast Guard said to Omroep West. The survival suit kept her afloat. The rescuers also credited the yacht crew for throwing her a life vest in their initial rescue attempt.
“The helicopter lifted the woman out of the water and took her to the hospital for examination,” the Coast Guard said.
It was unclear how the woman ended up in the water so far from the coast, Omroep West reported.
