Kyle RNLI called out twice in 4 hours to incidents involving divers

Kyle lifeboat Spirit of Fred. Olsen launched at 10:45am this morning, when the UK Coastguard received a Mayday call after a number of divers were seen signalling and calling for help near the island of Scalpay off the Skye coast. The lifeboat made best speed to the scene, arriving at 11:00am along with other boats which were in the area. The lifeboat crew made contact with the divers, and it turned out they were not in distress, and had been signalling and shouting to each other. The lifeboat ensured nobody was injured and everyone was accounted for before returning to Kyle at 11:45am.

The pagers sounded again 3 hours later at 2:46pm, after a vessel thought there may be a diver in difficulty in the Kylerhea narrows after seeing something in the water. The lifeboat launched at 2:50pm and arrived on scene at 3:10pm where they began a search, finding debris in the water which had been mistaken for a diver in trouble. As the debris was a danger to shipping, the lifeboat crew recovered it before departing the scene and returning to Kyle, arriving back at 3:45pm.

A spokesperson for Kyle RNLI says: ‘The 2 separate incidents were false alarms with good intent. In both cases the reporting parties did exactly the right thing in calling for help when they thought someone was in distress.’

Notes to editors

· Please credit the library photo to Kyle RNLI

· There are no photos or videos of either incident

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Andrew MacDonald, Lifeboat Press Officer, 07748 707606, [email protected]

Natasha Bennett, RNLI Regional Media Officer for Scotland, 07826 900639, [email protected]

Martin Macnamara, RNLI Regional Media Manager for Scotland, 07920 365929, [email protected]

RNLI Press Office, 01202 336789

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