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Woman hit by passenger hovercraft (confirmed as untrue)

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pompeyfan

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The dailymail are reporting that a woman has been ran over by the Ryde - Southsea hovercraft this afternoon as the vessel was about to land at Southsea. The Mail are reporting the woman was trying to get a selfie although eye witnesses on the Portsmouth News Facebook page are claiming the woman was swimming.


  • A woman was allegedly dragged under a hovercraft ferry in Portsmouth
  • She was trying to take a picture of the front of the boat, reports revealed
  • The UK Coastguard and Military Police were called to the scene today
A major rescue operation has been sparked after a woman was dragged under the Portsmouth to Isle of Wight hovercraft ferry.

The woman was allegedly trying to take a picture while standing in front of the hovercraft as it headed into Clearance Pier, Portsmouth.


The UK Coastguard, Military Police, a coastguard rescue helicopter, Gosport and Fareham independent lifeboat were all called to the scene in Portsmouth today.

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The woman was allegedly trying to take a picture while standing in front of the hovercraft as it headed into Clearance Pier, Portsmouth
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The woman was dragged under the boat and her lifeless body was ejected out of the rear of the craft, reports suggested

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The UK Coastguard, Military Police, a coastguard rescue helicopter, Gosport and Fareham independent lifeboat were all called to the scene in Portsmouth today
The woman was dragged under the boat and her lifeless body was ejected out of the rear of the craft, reports suggested.
Staff onboard desperately tried to carry out an emergency shutdown.
The woman, thought to have been unconscious, has been dragged from the water and CPR was administered.
More to follow.
 
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Gloster

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The News’s website is reporting that a woman in her forties has been taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after being found unresponsive in the water. However, it is not clear if this is the same incident.
 

Bletchleyite

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Interesting they mention doing an emergency shutdown - surely that would cause the craft to land its full weight on whatever was underneath so a bad plan?
 

Ediswan

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Interesting they mention doing an emergency shutdown - surely that would cause the craft to land its full weight on whatever was underneath so a bad plan?
The way I read that is that the hovercraft crew attempted an emergency stop to avoid the collision.
 

Gloster

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The latest on The News’s website is that the hovercraft was not involved, but the shore crew did tell the pilot of a woman in the water. They are suggesting that there was just one incident.
 

david1212

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The first reports seemed to be as case of not establishing the facts before publishing to the public.

Island Echo Report

Core content - note the update @ 21:45.


A major rescue operation took place in Southsea following the discovery of an unconscious person in the water this afternoon (Saturday).


Gosport and Fareham Inshore Lifeboat was tasked to rescue the casualty, along with local mainland coastguard teams, police and paramedics.


The casualty was then pulled out of the water, with CPR said to have been given by lifeboat crew members.



Coastguard Rescue helicopter 175 was also on scene from nearby Lee-on-Solent for a time, but was stood down.


A South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) spokesperson said:


“The incident in Old Portsmouth earlier was in relation to a woman in her 40s who was found unresponsive in the water by the Coastguard and recovered to Camber Dock Lifeboat Jetty where they were met by our team comprising 2 ambulance crews, a paramedic team leader and an emergency doctor.
“After initial treatment the patient was then taken to the Queen Alexandra Hospital where she was handed over to colleagues in the emergency department in a life-threatening condition.”

A HM Coastguard spokesperson said



”HM Coastguard received multiple 999 calls about an incident near the hovercraft slipway in Southsea, Portsmouth.
“A woman was pulled from the water and passed into the care of the ambulance service.
“The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) and Hampshire Constabulary have been informed.”

UPDATE @ 21:45 – Despite national reports that the woman had been ‘sucked undernearth’ or ‘hit’ by a hovercraft, Island Echo can confirm this was categorically not the case.


A Hovertravel spokesperson said:


“Contrary to various media reports we can confirm that Solent Flyer was NOT involved with the incident involving a body in water but the crew were alerted. As Solent Flyer landed at Southsea this afternoon, the ground team alerted the pilot about a body in the water, as per Hovertravel’s normal safety procedure. The pilot landed safely and the service is operating as normal.
“The person has subsequently been recovered by the emergency services and the police are dealing with the matter. All further enquiries should be addressed to the police.”

Hovertravel has been running its standard service to timetable since shortly after the incident.
 

Peter Mugridge

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The first reports seemed to be as case of not establishing the facts before publishing to the public.
The story certainly did seem to be a bit unlikely; these are fairly large hovercraft with a decent hoverheight. The greatest risk to a person would be if their head was struck by the flexible skirt or if they were standing up in the path of the craft and got knocked down.

In the days of the even bigger cross-Channel SRN4s, there were plenty of stories of swimmers in the sea just off the pad at Calais deliberately positioning themselves in front of the craft in order to have them pass over themselves! Provided the craft wasn't set down over them, they would get away with it. I am not sure if the flight crews were specifically briefed to watch out for people attempting that, but @tellytype might know if there was an instruction to that effect.

Should such a person have been sighted, there would be little the crew could do anyway. Steering a large hovercraft at speed means planning your turn at least a mile ahead and starting to adjust the controls about half a mile ahead of where you want to turn. The only way of turning faster would be to bleed off the speed very quickly - and with a person in the water ahead of you, that's not the ideal manoeuvre to perform because the best way of bleeding off speed quickly is to cut the lift and drop into the water... the last thing you would want to do is plonk the craft down with someone underneath.
 

swt_passenger

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The latest amendment to the Daily Mail article linked in post #1 has now been calmed down to reflect the info in post #9, so that it is clear this was never a hovercraft accident in the first place, indeed not really even a transport issue at all.

I suppose if the possibility of being run over by a hovercraft hadn't initially come up we wouldn’t need this thread, but maybe @pompeyfan could consider amending the title...
 

swt_passenger

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Isle of Wight County Press now reporting that a 59-year old woman has died.
Here’s the link to the article:
Hampshire Constabulary says a woman pulled from the water at Southsea yesterday (Saturday) has died.
The police force also says it does not believe a hovercraft, landing at the time of the incident, was to blame.
Hampshire Constabulary said: "We were called shortly after 5.45pm, on Saturday April 24, to a report that a woman was unconscious in the water, off Clarence Esplanade, Southsea. "Officers attended and a 59-year-old woman was taken to Queen Alexandra Hospital. "Despite best efforts, she was sadly pronounced dead on Saturday evening."
 
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