A crowd of onlookers at an ocean rescue demonstration found themselves seeing a real event unfold when four divers vanished.
Volunteers with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution were showing how their work was done in Redcar, North Yorkshire, during the charity's Flag Day money raising efforts on Saturday July 1, when things abruptly became far more serious.
Pagers suddenly sounded as crews for the Atlantic 85 and the station’s D class ILB were tasked with a search operation after four divers were reported missing.
The skipper of a nearby dive boat had called Mayday after the divers in the area disappeared.
While there were choppy sea conditions, visibility was good with a moderate breeze at the time, TeessideLive reported.
The divers had been heading to the depths to visit the Dimitris - a cargo ship that sank just off the Redcar coast in 1953.
Both lifeboats, having just been involved in the demonstration, sped towards the shipwreck.
Luckily, the search led to all four divers being found safely. Cameron Bond, helmsman for the D Class ILB said: "Once we arrived at the area, we commenced a search and located all four divers within a few minutes.
"We got all the divers into the lifeboats and returned them safely to shore."
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Dave Cocks, Redcar RNLI chairman added: "The crowds that had come to the seafront to see our Flag Day rescue demonstration actually got to see the real thing.
"It was a perfect example of a well-executed rescue operation with all four casualties being returned safely to shore. A job well done."
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