A DIVER sustained deep cuts to his head when he struck a stationary boat propeller at the weekend.
The man had been diving near the Goldstone at the Farne Islands from the Sovereign III boat when the incident happened after 2pm on Saturday.
Seahouses inshore lifeboat took an ambulance crew member, who is also one of Craster lifeboat crew, to th
e boat where he gave first aid treatment on the journey to the harbour. The diver was then taken by air ambulance to Wansbeck Hospital. An RAF Boulmer helicopter, which had been requested, was stood down.
The man, believed to be in his late 30s, was diving with a party from Bradford.
Ian Clayton, Seahouses lifeboat operations manager, said: "It is possible that his injury was caused by hitting the vessel's stationary propeller while surfacing from a dive, although this is yet to be confirmed.
"The diver's injuries were not as serious as first thought, although he still had some deep lacerations to his head and cuts to his hands."
l The lifeboat crew was called to help another diver, who had been diving at the Farnes, suffering from mild hypothermia on Tuesday. The man was brought to shore by the dive boat.
l On Friday, the all-weather and inshore lifeboats helped a Dutch yacht which had struck a gravel bank known as the Rigg End at the entrance to Holy Island Haven.
A tow was passed and the yacht, with two people and a dog on board, was freed and escorted to the pier at Holy Island.
l The all-weather boat was launched late on Wednesday night to assist a vessel which had suffered steering failure north east of Holy Island.
The Shannon Rose, which had three people on board, was en route from Sunderland to Eyemouth.
The full article contains 303 words and appears in Northumberland Gazette newspaper.
