An injured woman was winched into a helicopter from a yacht 80 miles off the North East coast during a challenging rescue at sea.
An alert was received by the Coastguard after a woman become injured during a sailing trip from Denmark on Thursday afternoon.
The vessel had hit a large wave during severe weather conditions and a woman had been left with potentially serious injuries as a result.
The crew of the tanker Navion Anglia had to relay information from the yacht to the Coastguard due to the yacht being out of the range of Marine VHF radio.
A Coastguard helicopter from Humberside was sent out to collect the woman from the yacht, which was around 88 nautical miles east of Amble in Northumberland.
Amble's RNLI lifeboat also made its way to the scene to help escort the yacht back in to the shore. It then docked in Amble.
The injured woman was winched onto the helicopter from the yacht and was flown to the helicopter landing pad near the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
The Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade were requested by the Coastguard to clear the Richardson Road helicopter landing site ready for the helicopter's arrival at 4pm.
The pilot had to negotiate a herd of cows near to the landing site but the helicopter landed safely and the casualty was quickly transferred to an ambulance so that she could receive further medical treatment.
Officers from Northumbria Police were also at the scene and helped the Brigade to keep public at a safe distance.
