Footage shot on Friday, August 8, 2025, showed a red and white HM Coastguard helicopter coming down on the open sand at Skegness beach, kicking up a cloud of dust around it in the afternoon heat. A man in orange high-visibility gear stood near a yellow Lifeguards sign, head down. The RNLI inshore lifeboat was already working offshore.
A woman in her 60s had got into serious difficulty in the sea. By the time the helicopter touched the sand, CPR was already being carried out on the shoreline.
She did not survive.
That afternoon was one of five separate fatal incidents along the Lincolnshire coast between May and August 2025, a summer that lifeguard supervisors later said was among the most demanding seen in nearly two decades on these beaches.
Table of Contents
What Happened at Skegness Beach on 8 August 2025
At around 5pm, the Coastguard received reports that a woman was in difficulty in the sea at Skegness. The RNLI inshore lifeboat launched from the station on Tower Esplanade. HM Coastguard helicopter Rescue 912, based at Humber, was scrambled and began circling the beach. People on the shore filmed it, the footage going online around 15 minutes before the woman was brought in from the water.
She was pulled from the sea at approximately 5:30pm. CPR began on the beach immediately. The Coastguard called Lincolnshire Police at 5:39pm. The helicopter and the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance both landed on the beach at around 5:45pm.
The full weight of the Lincolnshire coast’s sea rescue operation was there. It was not enough.
Lincolnshire Police confirmed: “We received a call from the Coastguard at 5.39pm on 8 August reporting that they had rescued a woman who had got in difficulty in the sea at Skegness. The woman, aged in her 60s, was brought onto shore but sadly she died. Her next of kin are aware. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this difficult time.”
Her name was not released, in line with standard police procedure.
The Emergency Response
Three separate services were on scene simultaneously:
- RNLI D class inshore lifeboat The Holland Family (D-842), launched from the Skegness station on Tower Esplanade
- HM Coastguard helicopter Rescue 912, operating out of Humber, which circled the beach before landing
- Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, on the beach by approximately 5:45pm BST
People who were at Skegness beach that afternoon described the sea as behaving nothing like it appeared. One eyewitness told LBC: “It was calm and then you would get three or four big powerful waves. I can swim in the sea. I’ve always done it. But that day you could feel the power of the water trying to pull you in. At times, I was struggling to stand up. It was a dangerous sea that day.”
Another person, who had been at the beach with their grandson, wrote: “Heartbreaking. Was there with my grandson, so many people having fun, but in a moment her life was taken away.”
Five Deaths on the Lincolnshire Coast in Summer 2025
The August 8 death was the third of five fatal incidents along this stretch of coastline between May and August 2025. All five were separate incidents, across Skegness, Ingoldmells and Anderby Creek.
25 May 2025 — Ingoldmells, three miles north of Skegness On the bank holiday Sunday, a 60-year-old man entered the sea near the Promenade at Ingoldmells after seeing two children who appeared to be in difficulty in the water. He got into serious trouble himself and died at the scene. Two air ambulances, HM Coastguard, the Skegness RNLI lifeboat, ambulance crews and police all attended. Lincolnshire Police released no information on the man’s identity or the two children.
July 2025 — Skegness central beach Aaron Keightley, 29, from Beaumont Leys in Leicester, was on his first holiday with friends in Skegness when he got into difficulty south of the central beach at around 3:30pm on a Monday afternoon. He was pulled from the water unconscious. RNLI Lifeguards Lincolnshire and East Midlands Ambulance Service attended. He died at the scene. His sister Shannon Smith, 26, described him as “selfless and loving” and said her family was “devastated.”
8 August 2025 — Skegness beach The woman in her 60s died following the RNLI, coastguard and air ambulance response described above.
12 August 2025 — Skegness Four days later, at 6:25pm, Lincolnshire Police received another call from the Coastguard. A man in his 30s had been rescued from the water at Skegness. He was brought to shore and died at the scene.
The final toll across the Lincolnshire coast that summer reached five. When the RNLI lifeguard season ended on September 7, Lincolnshire World reported that a lifeguard supervisor described the crowd at Skegness on the longest and hottest day of the year as the busiest seen in 17 years, with over 5,000 visitors arriving in a single day, a figure usually only reached at the height of August.
What Officials Said
A joint statement was issued on August 13 by Richard Tice MP for Boston and Skegness, Cllr Craig Leyland, Leader of East Lindsey District Council, and Cllr Jimmy Brookes, Mayor of Skegness:
“We are all saddened to hear of this latest tragedy on our coast and our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the man. It is heartbreaking when a joyful visit ends in sadness and tragedy. Skegness is a wonderful venue for family holidays and days out and we want people to come here to enjoy themselves and make memories with their loved ones. We would urge visitors who want to swim in the sea to use one of the three RNLI lifeguarded beaches. Using Central Beach at Skegness, Central Beach at Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea in the lifeguarded areas is the safest way to enjoy the sea. Our appreciation must go to the emergency services who work tirelessly to safeguard our coast. Many, like the RNLI, are volunteers who live and work locally and know firsthand the impact such tragedies have on our visitors and communities.”
The three RNLI lifeguarded beaches on the Lincolnshire coast:
- Central Beach, Skegness
- Central Beach, Mablethorpe
- Sutton on Sea
Is Skegness Beach Safe to Swim? What the RNLI Says
RNLI lifeguards returned to East Lindsey beaches, including Skegness, on 20 May 2026 for the new season. The Skegness RNLI station on Tower Esplanade has been responding to sea rescues on this coastline since 1825. Since 1964, its D class inshore lifeboats alone have launched 1,556 times and saved 279 lives.
In 2025, RNLI crews across the UK and Ireland launched 9,059 times in total, averaging 25 launches every day of the year, saving 272 lives.
The RNLI’s advice for anyone swimming at Skegness beach or on the wider Lincolnshire coast this summer:
- Swim only between the red and yellow flags on a lifeguarded beach, where a trained lifeguard is watching the water
- If you get into difficulty, float on your back and stay calm rather than trying to swim for shore — this is the RNLI’s #FloatToLive advice
- Call 999 and ask for the Coastguard if you see someone in trouble in the water; do not enter the sea after them
- Keep inflatables out of the sea in any offshore wind — they carry people away from shore faster than most people expect
- Never swim alone, even when the sea looks completely flat
Skegness RNLI Helm Martin Stokes said: “The sea is unpredictable and can quickly turn a fun day into a potentially dangerous situation.”
The Holland family, whose name the Skegness inshore lifeboat carries, have passed a single piece of advice through generations of voluntary service at the station: “Never turn your back on the sea.”
Five days ago, on May 20, 2026, the red and yellow flags went back up at Skegness, Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea. The same RNLI volunteer crew that launched on August 8, 2025, is still there, training through winter and spring, ready to go again.
The helicopter footage from that Friday afternoon in August continues to circulate. For the people who watched it from the beach that day, it was not a clip. It was the afternoon they were standing in when the sea took someone. The water off Skegness had looked calm. It had not behaved that way.
That is the part no footage shows.
