Woman Saved After North Sea Ferry Plunge

Dramatic footage has been released by the RAF of the rescue of a woman who was plucked alive from the North Sea after falling from a ferry.

The Coastguard said the alarm was raised after the woman, in her early 20s, plunged from the Princess Seaway which was travelling from Newcastle to Ijmuiden in the Netherlands.

A helicopter and lifeboat were used to find the woman, who is from Hertfordshire, and she was eventually rescued from the water.

It is not known how she fell from the boat at 8.48pm on Tuesday, but the Coastguard said she was a "fortunate lady".

She was winched back onto the ship by a lifeboat and checked for pneumonia and ingestion of sea water, before being flown to hospital, where she was kept overnight.

She spent around 30 minutes in the water.

A spokeswoman for the Coastguard said: "Praise must go to the crew of the ferry who reacted so quickly and deployed their fast rescue craft which cut down the amount of time she was in the water.

"She was a fortunate lady and we are pleased to say she was swiftly rescued and taken to Scarborough Hospital by helicopter."

The ferry, which was 20 miles from Scarborough at the time of the incident, is understood to have continued its journey.