Irish coast guard helicopter pilot tells how girl, 5, lucky to be alive after miraculous rescue

Captain Sean Murphy told how the young child drifted out to sea on an inflatable toy

A five-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after she was miraculously rescued from the Shannon estuary, an Irish coast guard helicopter pilot said on Friday.

Captain Sean Murphy told how the young child, who drifted out to sea on an inflatable toy, had been “a very lucky little girl”.

He said fortune had been on her side as coastguard helicopter Rescue 115 had been nearby on a training mission off the Kerry coast on Thursday.

Captain Murphy, whose crew were alerted by the Valentia coast guard and assisted by the Kilrush RNLI boat, said it took them 10 minutes to arrive at the scene at Ballpoint near Ballybunion.

He added: “We quickly located a little girl drifting out to sea into choppier waters, she was drifting off the shoreline, she seemed to be sitting on an inflatable toy, the lads described it as a blow up jet ski. “She was wearing a swimming togs.”

Capt Murphy said they quickly decided the best thing to do was to get their winch-man down to her.

He told RTÉ radio’s News at One: “As we were approaching to put the winch-man down to her, she came off the actual toy, fell into the water.”

Capt Murphy said winch-man Jim O’Neill then made a quick decision to come off the cable and swim to her and moments later he secured her.

The pair then waited for the Kilrush RNLI lifeboat, which was less than 10 minutes away, to pick them up.

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Capt Murphy continued: “We remained on scene until the lifeboat had them both safely on board, we landed on the shore, we waited for them to come to us and then we took the child and her mother to Kerry university hospital to be checked over, on landing in Kerry she was smiling and chatting and she was thanking Jim for saving her.

“All went well.

“I think the stars really aligned for her, she was a fortunate little girl – being there in 10 minutes was a pretty quick response.”

Capt Murphy said there had been a strong current pushing the child offshore and further out the estuary

He added: “We were all very lucky on this one.”