Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 175 has been scrambled to conduct a search around the coast of the Isle of Wight after a Mayday call was picked up earlier on this afternoon (Tuesday).
The incident began sometime around 13:00 when the spoken words ‘Mayday’ were heard by Solent Coastguard, prompting fears that a vessel may be in difficulty.
Following an initial sweep around the coastline to the West Wight, Coastguard Rescue 175 returned to The Bay area before then refuelling at Lee-on-Solent. The helicopter is now back in the skies carrying out further searches.
UPDATE – A thorough search has been carried out but nothing has been found. The search has now been called off.
The incident is being publicly deemed a false alarm.
If this is a hoax call then how disgusting thing as the emergency service has a lot to do already and the cost of it
I can’t understand why a person would ring the coastguard and make out some one needed help this happened to often they go and spend hours searching for a ship that needs help to find it’s a hoax they don’t realise it costs thousands of pounds to fly one of these for an hour. So please think before you do this
A mayday call would be via a radio.. So maybe they were in difficulty and hopefully managed to get back to shore rather than sink
Surely then, anyone with a modicum of morality would radio in to say “we’re ok, thank you”?
Absolutely mindless whoever did this. What an absolute moron. Such a shame we have idiots like this in the world. Wish they could be traced then make them pay the costs incurred, they wouldn’t find it such a laugh then. If it was a legitimate emergency, surely they could have confirmed they were ok so the emergency services could have stood down.