The objectives set for the exercise codenamed ‘Seacoast25’ were:
- To test the rescue coordination arrangements along the Belgian coast – version dated 15 June 2025 (green period – meaning during the operational period of the beach lifeguard services).
- To test the alerting procedures for the involved emergency services.
- To test the communication between the involved services on land, at sea, and in the air.
- To test the establishment of the on-site command post (CP): this includes the relevant emergency services coordinating the rescue operation on land. Specifically, this involves the fire brigade, medical services, police, and beach lifeguard service.
In the first scenario, a mother and her child are walking on the Nieuwpoort pier. In an unguarded moment, the child falls through the railings at the end of the pier into the sea. The mother, in a panic, contacts the NC112 emergency center. The beach lifeguards noticed the incident and quickly brought the child back to the beach. The lifeguards regularly train for rescues in difficult locations such as the end of the pier. However, this is not straightforward. Given the sunny and calm weather conditions, no additional assistance was requested.
In the second scenario, a group of four sea kayakers is practicing at sea. One of the kayakers collides with two private sailboats. The kayak breaks in two and sinks. The injured kayaker is brought aboard by his companions. He is placed on a makeshift pontoon formed by connecting the two remaining kayaks, a technique used to prevent hypothermia. The kayakers report to the MRCC that they have an injured person on board due to a collision and that they themselves are gradually becoming hypothermic. They report a collision with one sailboat and mention a second sailboat was also involved. They indicate that several people from the sailboats went overboard, but they cannot specify how many. They request help for their injured fellow kayaker. One of the remaining kayaks paddles to shore and alerts the beach lifeguards about eight minutes later.
Additionally, one of the sailboats also contacted the MRCC: they reported that there were five people on board both boats combined, and that four people had gone overboard due to the collision. This means that a total of 14 role-players were involved in the second scenario, of whom 7 were in distress.
The second scenario involved three visible drowning victims and four missing persons. It took quite some time before there was a clear picture of the number of injured. Due to the complexity of the incident and the need for many resources, the rescue coordination arrangements were immediately activated. The exercise once again proved to be very useful for refreshing and refining the agreements and identifying opportunities for even better cooperation.
