RNLI's Invergordon lifeboat joins in search after reports of ditched hang glider in Moray Firth
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REPORTS of a hand glider ditching in the sea sparked a call-out for the Invergordon RNLI lifeboat yesterday (Thursday).
The volunteer crew were paged by the HM Coastguard team in Aberdeen at 3.47pm, after it had received a call that a small aircraft had ditched into the Moray Firth.
Launching within eight minutes of the pagers sounding, the all-weather Trent class lifeboat ‘Douglas Aikman Smith’, made best speed up the Cromarty Firth and began searching from the Sutors to Chanonry Point. They were joined by the Search and Rescue helicopter based at Inverness Airport, and other vessels in the local area, including a dolphin watching tourist vessel.
Shortly afterwards, reports from the HM Coastguard advised the searchers that a hand glider had landed safely on land and the incident was being treated as a false alarm with good intent.
The search ended and the lifeboat began its return to base, but was diverted to an oil rig in the Cromarty Firth after one of the crew aboard the commercial vessel suffered an ankle injury and needed to be ferried ashore for hospital treatment.
Following treatment by the oil rig medic, the injured man's ankle was secured and he was transferred to a local work boat before two casualty-trained RNLI crew members boarded the vessel and assisted with his transit into the Nigg Energy Park berth and on to a nearby medical practice.
The volunteer crew then continued their journey back up the to the lifeboat berth in Invergordon, where the vessel was refuelled and made ready for service by 5.30pm.
