Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Investigation branch finds Macduff skipper who drowned could have been saved if he had worn a lifejacket

The Sea Mist
The Sea Mist

The Marine Accident Investigation branch has found that a Macduff skipper who drowned earlier this year could have been saved if he had worn a lifejacket.

The life of fisherman Tony Masson may also have been spared if he had “ready access” to a knife after it was found the rope holing him underwater was “almost completely severed”.

Mr Masson died in March after being hauled overboard from his vessel, Sea Mist, after becoming entangled in a rope.

The 67-year-old was working creels to fish for crab in his usual waters to the north of Macduff.

Details of his death have been released in a report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), along with safety lessons learned from the incident.

The report states:  “Sea Mist’s skipper was working alone on deck without a personal flotation device (PFD) and there were no barriers in place to separate him from his fishing gear.

“The investigation concluded that he drowned either because he was dragged underwater by the weight of the creels and was unable to free himself in time to reach the surface, or because he was unable to keep himself afloat after releasing his foot from his wellington boot.”

On the day of his death, Mr Masson’s son, Duncan, was out on his boat, Ocean Lee, when he noticed the Sea Mist circling with no sign of his dad on the boat or on the water surface.

A large scale search and rescue operation ensued after Duncan “saw his father’s baseball cap floating in the water”.

He then “recovered a leader that had one of his father’s wellington boots caught in it”.

Mr Masson was found around an hour after the search began, “floating face-down just under the sea surface”, and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

The MAIB found it was evident from the cut in the creel leader’s rope that Mr Masson “fought hard to free himself”.

Had he manged to free himself from his boot and made it to the surface alive, the nine degree water temperature would have sent him into water shock and cold water incapacitation “within minutes”.

The MAIB report states: “In such circumstances, without the buoyant support of a PFD, the rapid onset of drowning would have been inevitable.”

Three safety lessons were taken from the fatality: a means of separating the crew from the rope “would probably have prevented this accident”, “a lifejacket might well have saved the skipper’s life” and quicker access to a knife may have also prevented his death.

Mr Masson, who had been in the Royal Navy until 1972, was “known to regularly wear his PFD when fishing” and carried a knife.

He left behind wife Pat, daughter Tracy, son Duncan and his fiance Anita.

He was also Granda to Jordan, Shaunnie, Lucas and Leesa.

His family did not wish to speak yesterday.