The Madeira Volunteer Firefighters’ Diving and Rescue Team carried out a challenging training session yesterday in the sea at Cabo Girão.
Nine team members trained diving on a day of rough seas and poor visibility on the Corvette Afonso Cerqueira, sunk in 2018.
Miguel Rodrigues, team coordinator, explained to DIÁRIO that the training aimed to recover a body from a depth of 26 metres and perfect techniques for a possible shipwreck in the waters of Madeira.
“The first dive was to inspect the corvette, at a depth of 32 meters. Then, we drew up a plan on land to recover the dummy, a supposed body that was at a depth of 26 meters, on the second dive. We used a body bag, lifting balloons and air bottles for this purpose,” he explained, admitting that “this was an innovative training exercise, carried out successfully by the entire team.”
The corvette Afonso Cerqueira, after 45 years of service in the Portuguese Navy, was sunk, in a process led by the Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation (IFCN), on September 4, 2018.