Blood moon confusion caused emergency search

Friday 06 November 2020

A late-night search for a Guernsey vessel in distress this week is believed to have been caused by a passenger on an inbound flight mistaking the blood moon for a red flare.

At approximately 19:54 on Wednesday evening, Guernsey Coastguard received information from staff at Guernsey airport that a passenger on board an Aurigny flight had seen what they thought was a flare approximately 12nm to the North West of Guernsey.

After "several lines of enquiry had been exhausted" and with no further information forthcoming, the Channel Islands Air Search was launched at 21:25 to investigate the sighting, conducting a thorough search in "near perfect conditions" using their Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) camera. 

The emergency volunteers began a stepladder search at 2,000 feet using north/south search legs, working from west to east to follow the tide.

Pictured: The 'flare' was spotted by a passenger on an inbound flight.

The crew then encountered a fishing boat that shed light on what the traveller had probably seen. 

"At 22:38 the fishing vessel Innovator was observed some 5-6 nm north of the search area," said a spokesperson for CI Air Search.

"Contact was made by marine VHF and the crew of the vessel were asked to report anything that may be of assistance.

"The skipper of the vessel reported that when the moon was rising, it was blood red and could easily have been mistaken for a flare. Guernsey Coastguard noted the details of this call, and the search continued."

"On completion of the stepladder search at 23:52, Lions' Pride carried out a coastal search of Guernsey approximately one nm offshore, starting at the north east corner and searching the west coast to Rocquaine. A northbound search of the coast was then carried out approximately 1.5nm offshore, as far as the north east corner."

The emergency aircraft, Lions' Pride, returned to Guernsey and landed at 00:17, having been airborne for just over two hours.