Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation

Private and voluntary organisations · Sport governing body

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First report 6 Mar 2024•Latest report 6 Mar 2024

Reports, concerns and published responses

Reports over time

Reports naming this recipient by issue year.

* 2026 is projected from reports observed to 7 Sep 2026.

Reports
1

Naming this recipient

Published responses
0%

Found for named reports

Concerns addressed
0

Across all linked responses

Stated actions
0

Described in responses

Concerns and recipient responses

Statements from Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation linked to the concerns in each report. Select any concern, action or position to view the source wording.

  1. Black Country

    AI-generated summary

    Mr Iain Hughes · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Mr Iain Hughes became submerged approximately 11 hours and 35 minutes into a channel swim on 19 June 2023 and was not recovered despite rescue attempts; he was subsequently found in Belgian waters on 4 July 2023. The concern was a lack of clarity about who should decide when to abort a swim and how that decision should be communicated, potentially causing delay and increasing risk.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation; that does not assign responsibility.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Lack of clarity in communicating decisions to abort a swim

    Wider context from the report

    “1. During the course of the inquest, I heard evidence from the pilot, ████████. He confirmed at around thirty minutes before Mr Hughes became submerged, that he was concerned about progress and that it was likely the swim would be aborted. 2. It is not clear how this was communicated to the family and no action was taken to abort the swim. 3. My concern is this lack of clarity of who and when should make the decision to abort a swim can result in unnecessary delay and increase risk. 4. I am told by the CSPF they have clear guidance and protocols in place and have been provided with several documents to support this. There is always an element of risk by the very nature of the channel crossing challenge. However, given this incident and confusion about when a swim should be aborted you may wish to review the situation further and how this is communicated to all those involved. ”
    Open source report

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation; that does not assign responsibility.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Lack of clarity about who and when should decide to abort a swim

    Wider context from the report

    “1. During the course of the inquest, I heard evidence from the pilot, ████████. He confirmed at around thirty minutes before Mr Hughes became submerged, that he was concerned about progress and that it was likely the swim would be aborted. 2. It is not clear how this was communicated to the family and no action was taken to abort the swim. 3. My concern is this lack of clarity of who and when should make the decision to abort a swim can result in unnecessary delay and increase risk. 4. I am told by the CSPF they have clear guidance and protocols in place and have been provided with several documents to support this. There is always an element of risk by the very nature of the channel crossing challenge. However, given this incident and confusion about when a swim should be aborted you may wish to review the situation further and how this is communicated to all those involved. ”
    Open source report
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Information checked against published PFD reports and official responses · Data reviewed 7 Sep 2026 · About data quality and limitations

Data last updated 7 September 2026