Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Four taken to hospital after rescue vessel runs aground during training

Four people were rescued from a Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue boat Thursday night after the boat ran aground near Sooke Harbour’s Christie Point during a training session.
Rescue boat aground
A Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue boat went aground off Sooke Harbour’s Christie Point during night training on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019.

Four people were rescued from a Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue boat Thursday night after the boat ran aground near Sooke Harbour’s Christie Point during a training session.

A Canadian Coast Guard vessel and a boat from another auxiliary search-and-rescue unit out of Victoria responded to the cold and dark shoreline, the Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said. East Sooke firefighters extricated one person who was more seriously injured.

The four search-and-rescue volunteers were transported to the Prestige Hotel area, where B.C. Ambulance paramedics were standing by. One person was transported by air ambulance to Victoria General Hospital, while the other three were taken to hospital by ground ambulance.

The nature of the volunteers’ injuries has not been disclosed. The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre did not say if weather was a factor in the incident.

A photo from the scene showed a yellow and red fast response boat overturned and perched precariously on the rocks.

The exercise was not related to the multi-agency search-and-rescue exercise based out of the Victoria International Airport that took place Monday to Thursday.