This is quite exceptional in the history of search and rescue operations

Michael Mulford, RAF spokesman

Its crew carried out the rescue operation with pin-point precision in high seas.

RAF spokesman Michael Mulford told BBC Scotland that those on board the Nimrod had to get it right first time.

He explained that they had been left to perform a "very very difficult maneouvre".

"You have the aircraft down just above the water travelling at 200 miles an hour," he said.

"You quite literally open the bomb bay and drop this life raft at exactly the spot where you think the waves and wind will blow it right onto the survivor.

Enormous relief

"A guy who has been in the water for 12 hours will not be able to swim towards it, so you have to get it right - and get it right first time."

He thought there would have been "enormous relief and professional joy" among those on board the aircraft when they saw the survivor climb on board the dinghy.

"He really must have the survival instinct - this is quite exceptional in the history of search and rescue operations," he said.

However, the good news for those involved in the operation was tempered by the discovery of the bodies of the six other crew members.

Nine fishermen were winched from a life raft

The search was stood down after the remainder of the crew were found, and their bodies were being taken to Benbecula.

John Griffiths from Clyde Coastguard agreed that the man rescued later on Tuesday was "extremely lucky" to be alive.

"It does show that if you are wearing the right equipment you can survive," he said.

"We have been looking at the drift of the life rafts and people in the water, which we have been calculating on a computer - taking into account the wind, the sea current and the wind-driven current.

"So far all the targets have been found within our search area."

On exercise

The alarm was first raised after 2300 GMT on Monday night when a faint distress signal from the Hansa was detected.

The boat had 16 people on board - 15 Spaniards and the German captain. Nine of them were able to get into a life raft.

A Canadian Aurora aircraft on exercise in the area was first on the scene, followed by a Nimrod from RAF Kinloss and four ships.

However, the swell was too great for the vessels to help, and it was left to Stornoway coastguard to rescue the survivors.

A winchman had to lift the nine crew members from the life raft one by one.

The men were taken to a military reception centre on Benbecula in the Western Isles.

Their colleague, who was suffering from severe hypothermia, touched down later on Tuesday and was taken straight to hospital.