Rescue 1998

Clacton Lifeboat crew have told of finding the wreck of a light aircraft which plunged into the sea killing its pilot.

Clacton and Walton Lifeboats were called in by Thames Coastguard at Walton to help search for the privately owned jet and its sole occupant. Nigel Paterson, 40 from north London, was married with two children. A witness had seen him eject from the plane as it hit the sea on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. The coroner's office has been informed and an inquest will be held at a later date. The Air Accident Investigation Bureau has also been alerted.

Dave Carvey was aboard the Atlantic, Clacton's Lifeboat along with helmsman Dave Quested, Steve Wride and Ian Mantripp, when the red and white jet Provost was seen above the waterline on Christmas Eve night.

Robert Bradbrook, lifeboat crew first to locate wreckage

An earlier Clacton crew had located the jet at high water and the Lifeboat returned at low tide to continue the search for the pilot. They finally saw the wreck about 250 Meters away at about 21:30 on St. Peters Flats off Bradwell on Sea. Flares were sent up and they thought they could see something out at sea. They walked the Lifeboat out to it as we were only in about 2ft of water. When we got there we had no idea what we would find as we had heard many conflicting reports. It was very eerie and we just caught sight of the flashing strips on the jet. The plane was upright and what looked like a scaffolding pole was sticking out skywards from the cockpit so we knew the pilot had ejected.

The crew continued in the search with West Mersea Lifeboat for as long as possible until the effort was called off for the night. The second crew from Clacton had left the boathouse at 07:30 and returned at about 10:30. Mr. Carvey said it was blowing a force five or six wind and quite cold but they didn't really notice the conditions. Their thoughts were on trying to find the pilot.

Earlier, at 14:45 the first crew from Clacton, Pat Shiners, Robert Bradbrook, and Darren Nicholson had launched to go to the entrance to the River Blackwater.

They had been the first to locate where the jet had gone down. Mr. Bradbrook said "We did a search from sail Point southwards helping the West Mersea Lifeboat. We located the jet from the fuel coming up to the surface at about 16:00 Hrs". They also found the pilot's helmet and a cushion he had been sitting on. We buoyed the scene ready for low water and then returned to the boathouse. The sea was pretty lumpy and it was quite cold and it made sense to change crews. All the crews stayed at the boathouse waiting for news.

Clacton lifeboatmen were involved in a most unusual service on 27th June 1998, when they rescued a young woman parachutist while she was still airborne. The station's Atlantic 21 was called out when a speedboat towing an airborne parachutist capsized and sank of Martello Bay. Lifeboat Dave Wells, Mathew Harrison and Tim Sutton were on the scene within minutes of the 13:24 launch and found that the driver of the boat had already been picked up. However although the boat had sunk, the towing line to the parachutist was still attached and the strong and gusty SW wind was enough to keep the parachute 6ft to 12ft in the air. The lifeboatmen positioned the Atlantic under the parachute and at the first opportunity grabbed the pair of legs dangling above them. Trying to haul the young lady down against the lift of the chute was far from easy, but eventually they managed to bring her down into the Atlantic. Now all they had to do was hold her down to keep her in the boat while disengaging her harness a task which they eventually managed allowing the parachute to fly away, deflate and eventually drop back into the sea. The crew came ashore smiling broadly at their new experience, bringing with them a very relieved young lady who, although wearing a buoyancy aid, was a non swimmer and who had definitely not been looking forward to the prospect of a ducking.

The Clacton Lifeboat was launched after a 999 call to a yacht taking in water two miles of Jaywick, Clacton. The three man crew of the 21 foot yacht (Juno) were picked from the water, a helicopter from RAF Wattisham took all three to Colchester General Hospital. (29/07/1998 11:30Hrs) All three OK.