"Flare sighting" out at sea leads to late night search

Thursday 05 November 2020

Air search volunteers were called out on Wednesday evening after an Aurigny passenger reported seeing a flare north-west of Guernsey.

Channel Islands Air Search Chief Officer John Fitzgerald told Express at 22:42 last night that his crew had been called to reports of a flare being let off out at sea.

"The Channel Islands Air Search aircraft has just taken off on a search for a flare sighted earlier this evening by an Aurigny passenger," he said late last night. 

"It is in an area about 12 miles north-west of Guernsey, looking for any vessel that could be in difficulty.  Facilities used on this search include the use of AIS, radar and the FLIR camera."

Express put in an enquiry with the RNLI Lifeboat to confirm whether its volunteer crew had also been called out to conduct a search. A spokesman said they were aware of air search's attendance but that the lifeboat was not launched as it "was not in support of this activity."

Updates from the CI Air Search will be provided when we have them, however, there have been no immediate updates this morning saying that anything was discovered during the search.