"Eyewitness Richard Darlow" was "less than impressed" with the efforts to save the life of a man who fell from the West Pier on Wednesday (The Argus, February 2).

The Coastguard rescue helicopter he claims "buzzed overhead and made one of the men (who had been drinking) panic" will have been flown by a pilot with many years' search and rescue experience, most likely with the armed forces. This is a requirement for the role.

The "Coastguards who came over in their boat" were not in fact Coastguards but a highly-trained RNLI crew who, having been paged away from their day job, will have dropped everything and launched to rescue this drinker from his self-imposed peril.

And, despite the freezing weather conditions, it would appear these "less than impressive" rescuers did a fairly quick and professional job after all, with the casualty successfully being recovered and transferred to hospital.

Perhaps Mr Darlow has some experience in this field which he was too shy to share. Is it possible this "eyewitness" had his eyes shut?

-Rob Cullen, Shoreham-by-Sea