A SEARCH for two missing teenagers sent Morecambe's Hurley Flyer into action - the RNLI hovercraft's first life-saving mission since its launch last year.

The craft's four-man crew joined police and search dogs late on Saturday to look for the 14 and 15-year-old boys, reported missing from Ridgway Park School, Silverdale.

Morecambe Police's new inspector Richard Debicki told the Citizen: "Because of their age, the time and foggy weather we were very concerned. We believed the youngsters might have been making across the sands to get to a railway station so the search involved local officers from Cumbria, Lancashire, the RNLI and police dogs.

"As a result of an excellent team effort they were found walking near the Albion Hotel in Arnside just before 2am on Sunday. They were both safe."

RNLI's Morecambe-based hovercraft the first of its kind in Britain was launched at 10pm for an extensive search of mud flats and the coastline, working in darkness and dense fog over terrain pitted with deep gullies.

Senior commander Harry Roberts says: "There were a lot of gullies in the mud and it was a bit hairy in the dark. We were out for two hours but returned because it was too dangerous."

The crew waited until the tide started to turn and were about to launch the D-class lifeboat when the boys were found.

Harry says: "The craft and crew performed excellently. The conditions were the worst you could possibly have for the hovercraft but it did its job. No other vehicle could have gone into the area we searched apart from a helicopter."

April 10, 2003 08:30