The volunteer crew of Oban lifeboat were paged shortly before 1pm yesterday and tasked by Stornoway coastguard to go to the aid of a 17-metre fishing boat with four people on board that was taking on water south of the Garvellach islands.
When the crew of the Mora Edith MacDonald arrived on scene 50 minutes later, they discovered two members of the crew on a life-raft while two others had remained on board to try to stem the inflow of water.
The Prestwick-based Coastguard helicopter Rescue 199 and a local workboat were standing by, but strong winds and a heavy sea made it impossible to transfer members of the lifeboat crew with a salvage pump onto the fishing boat.
By this time, the skipper of the fishing boat believed they had stopped the water coming in. After the people on the life-raft were quickly brought aboard the lifeboat, a decision was taken to tow the vessel to Oban for repairs.
Around an hour into the tow, about two miles south west of Easdale Island, the fishing vessel radioed asking for the speed to be reduced as they believed water was starting to come in again through the prop shaft.
Within minutes, the fishing boat listed heavily to port and the lifeboat, having cut the tow, returned quickly to the vessel which then sank in a matter of minutes, forcing the two remaining people on the fishing vessel into the water before they could be pulled to safety by the lifeboat crew.
The lifeboat returned to Oban lifeboat station where the four people from the fishing boat were passed into the care of the Scottish Ambulance Service and Coastguard team members.
