Latest news with #hovercraft
CTV News
04-08-2025
- General
- CTV News
Passenger hospitalized after tour boat runs aground in West Vancouver
The Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft CCGS Moytel off Spanish Banks in Vancouver's outer harbour, Vancouver, B.C., February 7, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Bayne Stanley
BBC News
24-07-2025
- BBC News
Hidden East Yorkshire: The Hull to Grimsby hovercraft service
Why did a high-tech crossing over the River Humber that took people just 20 minutes to travel between Hull and Grimsby stop operating after a year?The BBC's Hidden East Yorkshire podcast has gone back to 1969 to explore the origins of the two companies running hovercraft services between the two a combination of fragile vehicles and debris in the estuary, meant the service would cease to exist long before construction of the Humber Drury-Bradey, who has been conducting a research project and hearing peoples' memories, said: "Some people used it for work or shopping but a lot of people used it just for the novelty. It was such new technology at the time." Two separate firms ran the hovercraft trips. The first service was called Hoverlink, with a craft called Mercury. A rival company was then set up in the same year named Humber Hoverferry craft, which uses a cushion of air to travel over land, water, mud, ice and other surfaces, ferried passengers from the Corporation Pier in Hull to the docks at Stamp, 63, remembers a trip to see the hovercraft set off across the Humber. His dad walked him to the pier when he was around seven years old. "That was very exciting for me", he said. "My dad had built it all up, telling me about these fabulous new devices, that hovered on air."We saw the people get on and watched it leave. It was quite choppy but then it built up speed."I never went on myself," he added. "But I would have loved to." Despite their novel solution for people crossing the Humber, the services were withdrawn never to return. The Humber Bridge, which was designed in 1964 while the hovercraft operated, would eventually open to vehicles in Drury-Bradey said: "With the technology of the 60s, they [the hovercraft] were a bit too fragile. In the end they lasted less than a year."The researcher also said he would like the banks of the Humber to be better connected with quicker journey concluded: "It's the way to grow economies, the way to grow jobs, the way to grow opportunities."But whether a hovercraft is the answer to that these days, I'm not so sure." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
CTV News
04-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
Coast guard hovercraft service restored in B.C. after ‘unanticipated' pilot shortage
A Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft travels on the waters of English Bay in Vancouver, B.C., on Saturday June 13, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck The Canadian Coast Guard says it has resolved a crew shortage that temporarily grounded its hovercraft vessels in British Columbia last month. The agency confirmed on Friday the vessels were operational again after a lack of qualified personnel forced the coast guard to suspend its hovercraft service on June 13. Coast guard spokesperson Anna Muselius says the crew shortage was fixed this week, with the agency now closely monitoring hovercraft crew scheduling on a weekly basis. 'Additionally, two new pilots are in the final stages of training and will soon be available to enhance crew capacity,' Muselius said in an emailed statement to CTV News. The coast guard abruptly halted the hovercraft operations from their Sea Island Sea Island base in Richmond, citing an 'unanticipated' shortage of pilots certified in the operation of air-cushioned vehicles. The Sea Island station houses both of the coast guard's B.C.-based hovercraft, CCGS Moytel and CCGS Siyay. The air-cushioned vessels are commonly called upon for rapid, shallow-water responses at beaches and other areas that are otherwise inaccessible to rigid-hulled boats, including the mudflats surrounding the Vancouver airport. A spokesperson for the Vancouver Airport Authority said last week the agency was aware of the rescue vessel outage and its potential effects on the airport's disaster response planning. 'This is just one aspect of a potential response in the areas surrounding YVR,' the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. 'There are also a number of additional assets to support an incident,' such as helicopters and inflatable fast-rescue vessels, 'to ensure safety and operational continuity,' she added. The coast guard says it is facing the same shortage of qualified mariners that has affected the marine industry globally since the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency currently employs an estimated 6,400 personnel across the country, including roughly 1,600 vessel crewmembers and 1,300 vessel officers. 'Crewing shortages for hovercraft pilots do not affect other Canadian Coast Guard vessels or activities in B.C.,' coast guard spokesperson Alex Coutts said in a statement to CTV News. 'Canadians and our partners can rest assured that the Canadian Coast Guard has the resources necessary to continue providing essential services.'
BBC News
23-06-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Lifeboat crew rescues two sailors in dinghy stuck in mud in heavy rain
Two people have been rescued by a lifeboat crew after their dinghy got stuck in the mud in a river after heavy rain and strong RNLI said a distress call was sent at 16:30 BST on Sunday after the vessel was "stranded in the mud flats" in the River Lune near said the situation was "urgent" as the sailors "had been in difficulty for an extended period".They were rescued by the hovercraft team and they received medical attention at nearby Glasson Dock before being taken to hospital. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
CTV News
20-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Coast Guard hovercraft grounded
Coast Guard hovercraft grounded A pair of highly specialized vessels that serve public safety on the West Coast have been grounded by a lack of staff.
