FRASERBURGH Lifeboat was called out to one of their more unique calls when suspected debris from a microlight aircraft turned out to be an inflatable penguin.
At 2.55pm on Tuesday, Fraserburgh Lifeboat was paged after a well-meaning member of the public, who was later praised by Fraserburgh Lifeboat Coxswain Victor Sutherland for phoning 999, reported that he had been watching a microlight flying and had l
ost sight of it over the cliffs near Rosehearty.
After the Coastguard was informed, Fraserburgh Lifeboat and Task Rescue 137, a Helicopter from Lossiemouth, were sent to the scene.
Coxswain Sutherland told the Fraserburgh Herald:
"We received a report that a microlight had dipped down below the cliffs at Rosehearty and hadn't reappeared. The person who reported it was convinced that the aircraft had crashed."
The Willie and May Gall was first on scene with the Lossiemouth Helicopter arriving five minutes later.
"Ourselves and Task Rescue 137 were sent to the scene and started the search of the area. They fired of flares from the Helicopter to direct us to where they could see suspected debris on the surface and it turned out to be a novelty foil penguin balloon," he continued.
"When fully inflated the penguin would be a good 3-4ft so it is quite bulky, so we recovered that on board."
Air-traffic control were also involved in the search as they tried to find out if anyone flying clubs had known of any aircraft flying in the area.
"We then continued the search and 137 continued the air search. There were several small fishing boats in the area so we asked if they had seen or heard anything untoward, but they hadn't.
"At this point a crew member spotted something else in the water which was reflecting sunlight, which turned out to be another penguin balloon which was also recovered.
"By this point we had done a good sweep of the area and could find no more debris or signs of fuel and the coastguard was happy that there was nothing so ourselves and 137 we were stood down and we were back at the station at 4.30pm.
"It was a false alarm with good intent and I'd praise the informant and say well done for going through the proper procedures and phoning the coastguard on 999," he said.
Coxswain Sutherland also confirmed that the two penguins are now residing in the bin at Fraserburgh Lifeboat station.
The call was the third since Monday responded to by the Fraserburgh crew.
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