A SAILOR HAS been rescued after being reported missing from a container ship 16 miles off the Wicklow coast. 

The Wicklow RNLI all-weather lifeboat launched at 10pm last night after the sailor was reported missing from the ship.

The lifeboat arrived in the search area before 10.45pm and began an immediate search.

The Dublin based Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 was also tasked to join the search.

During the sector search the casualty was located just after 11pm by the lifeboat crew.

The Rescue 116 paramedic winchman was lowered onto the lifeboat to assess the casualty, before being winched onto the Coast Guard helicopter and airlifted to hospital in Dublin.

Speaking after the callout Coxswain Nick Keogh said: “We located the casualty five miles northeast of the Codling Buoy during a sector search, weather conditions in the area were calm at the time with good visibility.”

The crew on the call out were Coxswain Nick Keogh, Mechanic Tommy Murphy, Tommy MacAulay, Alan Goucher, John Stapleton, and Peter Byrne.