Author Description

Rolling in across the Atlantic was the fiercest storm to rock the British Isles for decades. The European Windstorm 'Kyrill' would go on to claim nearly fifty lives before it blew itself out - eleven casualties in Britain alone. Aboard the MSC Napoli a crew of twenty-six feared they might be part of that list. Their ship, holed beneath the waterline where the hull had cracked, had to be abandoned and the crew were ordered into their lifeboat by the captain. That was when the alert crews of 771 Naval Air Squadron were scrambled. Although he was supposed to have finished work for the day, Petty Officer Aircrewman Jay O'Donnell jumped on board Rescue 194 in case he could help. For O'Donnell was a graduate of one of the most arduous and demanding training programmes the British Armed Forces had to offer: he was a Royal Navy Search and Rescue Diver. Over the hours that followed, in appalling conditions, he would be tested to the limit and beyond. In "Rescue 194", O'Donnell tells for the first time the extraordinary inside story of the rescue of the crew of the Napoli for the first time. It's a gripping tale of disaster at sea, of the power of the elements and, above all, of the skill, courage and determination that resulted in the helicopter crews earning awards for their bravery that day - and Jay O'Donnell being decorated for gallantry by the Queen.