Sinking of the Spanish trawler Sonia

Just after midnight on the morning of 20 October, around seven hours after entering British waters, the Sonia broadcast a distress signal from a position around 45 miles (72 km) north of Land's End in Cornwall, stating that the vessel was taking on water.^[7][8][13] The Aisling heard the call and altered course towards the scene to render assistance.^[13] The British authorities dispatched an RAF Search and Rescue Force Westland Sea King helicopter. At a point around 80 miles (130 km) off Trevose Head the Sea King winched off 13 of the 16 men aboard; the remaining three crew members, including the Sonia's captain, were rescued by the 995-ton West German cargo ship Achat.^[2][7] Jordana de Pozas Fuentes claimed that damage from the shots fired by the Aisling's crew was the cause of the sinking, though the Irish stated that the number of hits was not sufficient to cause the vessel to sink.^[8][11] No casualties were incurred during the chase or sinking.^[8]

The Sea King returned to a Royal Air Force base in the south-west of England and the 13 crew stayed overnight in Plymouth before being repatriated to Spain.^[3] The Achat continued to its next port of call, Waterford, Ireland, where the three rescued crew members of the Sonia were questioned by Irish police. The men admitted to fishing in Irish waters illegally but denied any involvement in arms smuggling and were released without charge.^[7][11] De Pozas Fuentes supported the actions of the Irish authorities and stated that the crew could face prosecution upon their return to Spain.^[3] The British frigate HMS Lowestoft searched for the abandoned Sonia, but no wreckage was found and the vessel was presumed to have sunk.^[7]

The Sonia was the 33rd Spanish trawler to be ordered to halt for inspection by an Irish vessel in the preceding year, but was the first not to comply with the order.^[3] The incident was embarrassing for the Irish authorities, as at the time Ireland held the rotating presidency of the EEC and was involved in negotiations with Spain over their application to join the bloc.^[2] Fishing-access rights were a key obstacle in the negotiations and the Sonia incident led to calls from the Irish Fisherman's Organisation for Spanish vessels to be banned from Irish waters even after they joined the EEC.^[2][11] The negotiations proceeded and Spain joined the EEC, with no fishing restrictions, in 1986.^[2] The Spanish authorities made a cursory inquiry into the incident but no action was taken and no diplomatic protest was lodged with the Irish ambassador.^[18] The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs lodged a formal protest with the Spanish government over the incident.^[9] There is no record of any British protest over the continuation of the pursuit into the British EEZ.^[16]

It had long been recognised that warships held the right of "hot pursuit" of foreign vessels in their territorial waters, 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) from the coast. This right was originally held only under customary law but was codified in article 23 of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas. The right was extended to the contiguous zone, 24 nautical miles (44 km; 28 mi) from the coast, in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but this did not enter into force until 1994.^[19][20]

Hot pursuit rights permit a warship to pursue a foreign vessel, which is under reasonable suspicion of having committed an offence, into international waters. The law extends the jurisdiction of the pursuing state over the pursued vessel which otherwise, in international waters, would be subject only to the laws of its flag state. The Sonia case is one of the few hot pursuit cases in Irish history, though a British fishing vessel escaped after being fired upon in 1954 and a French trawler was apprehended after being shot in 1973.^[20]

In 1993, marine law writer Clive Ralph Symmons wrote about the incident.^[21] He noted that the pursuit began in Irish territorial waters in accordance with the law.^[16] Symmons stated that although there were few guidelines at the time as to how force should be applied during hot pursuits, it was clear that excessive force was illegal under international law. The limits of force had been discussed by commissions of enquiry following the 1929 sinking of the Canadian yacht I'm Alone by the US Coast Guard and the opening of fire upon the British trawler Red Crusader in 1961 by the Royal Danish Navy.^[22] Symmons considered that the amount of force used by the Aisling during the pursuit was justified and its actions legal.^[22] Robin Churchill and Alan Lowe, writing in The Law of the Sea (1999), considered that reasonable force might include that which results in the sinking of the pursued vessel.^[23]

Symmons noted that the Sonia was pursued into the British EEZ, and that these zones are not discussed by hot pursuit clauses, even in UNCLOS which was written after the widespread adoption of the EEZ. Symmons considered that under the law of the time, hot pursuit rights might have extended to foreign EEZs. Since 1992, INS policy has been to not carry out hot pursuits in foreign EEZs, though they appear to permit foreign vessels to continue pursuits into the Irish EEZ.^[16] Churchill and Lowe consider that hot pursuit into foreign EEZs remains legal under international law.^[23]