Rare footage of Coast Guard rescue to air this weekend

It's a rare sight to see first-person views of dramatic rescues, but viewers of Ireland's Search and Rescue on RTÉ One will see what goes into a rescue from the Irish Coast Guard this weekend, after a survivor gave permission for her story to be broadcast.

On 26th July this year, a French tourist, Yacine, took a stroll along the popular cliff trail around Howth. She and her Irish friend decided to take the narrow cut stairs down to Whitewater brook, a popular shingle beach – but Yacine fell 10m metres – over 30 feet – to the rocks below.

'It's very rare someone would survive that,' Robin Blandford, of Howth Coast Guard, who recorded the footage on his helmetcam, said. 'It's quite rare to get footage of somebody who survives and agrees to release the footage.'

A family on the beach raced to the top of the cliff to call 999 and reach the Coast Guard, who were able to dispatch a rescue helicopter to the remote location.

'For accidents on the cliffs and coast, make sure to call 999 and ask for Coast Guard specifically,' Blandford said. 'A lot of people will ask for an ambulance in that case, when you're then waiting for an ambulance, who then turn up, and they can't do anything.'

Howth Coast Guard has 25 volunteer members who cover the entire north Dublin Bay area, attending up to 70 calls each year.