Mayday alert sees Flint Coastguard volunteers called out.
Volunteers from HM Coastguard Flint were called out by Holyhead Operations Centre on Friday after the words MAYDAY were heard on a marine VHF radio channel designated as an international distress frequency.
The Mayday message, which is an internationally used voice alert to signal a life-threatening emergency, was picked up by the Moel-Y-Parc radio mast in the Clwydian Range.
The Coastguard rescue team from Flint were scrambled just before 6.15pm to search the River Dee from Flintshire Bridge along the coast towards Talacre Beach looking for signs of anyone in difficulty.
A spokesperson for HM Coastguard Flint said;
“Due to the size of the area that was being asked to cover, OIC decided to request Rhyl Coastguard Rescue Team to start a search from Prestatyn towards Talacre Beach and Flint would check from Connah’s Quay towards Talacre Beach.
After a thorough search from both teams covering numerous advantage points along the River Dee and questions being asked to people in the area we established that there were infact no one in need of our assistance and both team stood down.”
Coastguard officers believe the Mayday alert on VHF channel 16 was a hoax and was the second one in the Flintshire area on Friday.
