TRAGEDY AS RESCUE HELICOPTER DROPS MAN INTO SEA
Retired minister dies in accident horror
A MAN died in a fishing trip tragedy in which he was dropped while being winched onto a Royal Navy helicopter.
The emergency services were alerted after Dr Bill Murdoch fell into the water during a solo fishing trip on Loch Fyne, Argyll.
A local lifeboat, coastguard team and a Royal Navy helicopter were sent in response.
But as the 64-year-old – who was not responding – was being winched out of the freezing water, he some- how slipped from the helicopter harness and fell back into the loch.
His rescuers scrambled to get him back into the aircraft and tried to revive him as he was taken to hospital in Glasgow.
Tragically, Dr Murdoch was pronounced dead only 90 minutes after the first Mayday call was made.
It is unclear whether the charity
worker, who spent much of the year in Africa with his partner Debbie Gourlay, was still alive when he was plucked from the loch for the first time.
Police Scotland and the Royal Navy launched an investigation in the aftermath of the death.
A source close to the couple said last night that Miss Gourlay was devastated by what had happened and had travelled to Aberdeen to be with Dr Murdoch’s family.
She added: ‘Debbie knew there was going to be an investigation but she is just in shock at the moment. She told me there had been an attempt to rescue Bill but it had gone wrong somehow – I don’t know how or why.
‘She had so much to do, she was just all over the place.’
Although Dr Murdoch and Miss Gourlay spent much of the year in Malawi working at a hospice for cancer and Aids patients, the couple had a house in Lochgoilhead, Argyll.
Dr Murdoch also spent a lot of time at his caravan in the village of St Catherines, on the shores of Loch Fyne.
On Monday, September 7, he left the caravan and went out fishing.
But something happened during his trip and about 4.45pm, the Coastguard received several calls from locals reporting someone falling from a dinghy.
Tighnabruaich lifeboat, Loch Goil Coastguard rescue team and a Royal Navy Sea King from HMS Gannet, at Prestwick, Ayrshire, were scrambled to the scene. Dr Murdoch was being winched out of the loch into the helicopter when he fell back i nto the water. It is believed that he slipped out of the harness.
A Coastguard spokesman confirmed that the helicopter was on its way to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital by 5.30pm.
It is understood the Royal Navy team i n attendance believed Dr Murdoch was dead in the water when they arrived at the scene.
The cause of death is given as ‘cold water immersion’.
Last night, a Royal Navy spokesman said that a police post- mortem examination showed Dr Murdoch was dead in the water when they arrived.
He confirmed: ‘The crew continued to attempt to resuscitate him in the helicopter.’
The spokesman added that crew members are trained paramedics.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Following a full investigation, there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a 64-year- old man recovered from Loch Fyne on Monday, September, 7, 2015. A report has been sent to the procurator fiscal.’
Dr Murdoch was a Church of Scotland minister who served as a chaplain at the University of Aberdeen.
He resigned from the ministry in the mid-2000s after facing disciplinary action. He and Miss Gourlay lived in Argyll latterly, and he did some volunt ary work i n Scotland – although they spent most of the year in Malawi.
Dr Murdoch’s neighbour at the caravan site, who asked not to be named, said: ‘Bill was a minister in Aberdeen and he would volunteer at a local hospital.
‘He had been on a lot of trips to Malawi and to other places in Africa.
‘He was a really quiet man who kept himself to himself but liked fishing.
‘He used to go out quite a bit on his boat but not for a while before last Monday.’
The neighbour added: ‘ He came over and told me he was going out on the boat again and I saw him sitting in an inflatable dinghy down on the front. It is such a shame, I can’t believe what happened to him.
‘We have no idea what actually happened but I heard he was being rescued by helicopter and he fell.’
The Church of Scotland said: ‘We are very grateful for the service Rev Bill Murdoch gave to the church. He entered ministry in 1980, serving as both a parish minister and university chaplain.
‘This news has been received with sadness in his former charges and we offer our sincere condolences to his loved ones.’
I n 2013, an i nquiry was launched when a climber died while he was being rescued f r om an I nverness - s hi r e mountain.
Mark Phillips, 51, suffered serious head injuries when he fell more than 160ft down Ben Nevis.
But the father of one was fatally hurt while being winched to safety by an RAF Sea King helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth, Moray.
‘He was a really quiet man’