The Spanish trawler Sonia was spotted by the Irish Naval Service patrol vessel Aisling in Irish territorial waters off the coast of County Wexford and…

When

19 Oct 1984

Kind

Event

Coordinates

46.20° N, 82.35° W

Placed at the town named in the title of the event it links, Spanish.

The Spanish trawler Sonia was spotted by the Irish Naval Service patrol vessel Aisling in Irish territorial waters off the coast of County Wexford and suspected to be fishing illegally. The Aisling pursued the Sonia for five hours, firing almost 600 rounds during the pursuit, initially as warning shots, but soon targeting the trawler itself. Some seven hours later, just after midnight on the morning of 20 October, the Sonia broadcast a distress signal from 45 miles (72 km) north of Land's End in Cornwall stating that she was taking on water. A United Kingdom RAF Search and Rescue Force helicopter was mobilised and picked up thirteen of her crew; the remaining three were rescued by the West German cargo vessel Achat. The Sonia sank soon afterwards.

• Wikipedia year pages (English), by Wikipedia contributorsWikipedia contributorsCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0Source page