Maritime rescue teams wasted “vital” time and resources searching for casualties after a flare was spotted above Peterhead – only for them to find it had been deliberately let off in a park.
The volunteer crew of the Peterhead RNLI lifeboat, as well as coastguard units from Cruden Bay, Fraserburgh and Peterhead, were dispatched after a reported sighting of the distress signal in the skies above the port town just before 9pm on Saturday.
During the search mission, it was not clear whether or not the flare had been set off from sea or land, so both areas had to be searched.
But after around an hour of looking with no results, the flare was discovered in the Dales Park area.
Aberdeen Coastguard has reported the “malicious” act to Police Scotland for investigation.
A spokesman said: “There have been a lot of resources out and about for this because it is a recognised distress signal, so you think someone is in distress until we locate where it has been fired from.
“We have handed it over to the police now for them to follow up.”
RNLI volunteer Ciarán McRae said that if the incident was malicious, it was an “unacceptable” waste of time and money, especially because the RNLI relies entirely on voluntary donations and legacies to keep its life-saving rescue service operational.
Mr McRae, who was elected to Aberdeen City Council in May, said: “It’s disappointing to see the time and resources of critical services being wasted.
“It takes a lot of vital time for our volunteer teams to go out and search.
“This kind of behaviour is just unacceptable.
“There are also operational costs being wasted for false incidents like this.
“The RNLI depends on charitable donations, so it makes it even worse that this is money that could potentially be used on an actual rescue.”
A spokesman for the Peterhead RNLI team said: “The RNLI Peterhead Tamar Lifeboat ‘The Misses Robertson of Kintail’ was requested to launch by UK Coastguard on Saturday September 24 at 8.55pm with its volunteer crew to a reported sighting of a distress flare off Peterhead.
“After a successful search of the bay and east of the harbour without finding a casualty, the lifeboat was stood down, and returned to its station at 10.30pm.”
To donate to the RNLI or find out how to join a local fundraising team or crew, visit www.rnli.org.uk
