North-east lifeboats called into action in missing person search

Lifeboats from Aberdeen and Stonehaven joined the coastguard in the search for a missing person off Portlethen yesterday.

Both Aberdeen lifeboats had already been called out at around 9.15am to search for a surfer potentially in danger off the city coast.

This turned out to be a false alarm, although the call was made with good intent.

However Aberdeen’s all-weather lifeboat, the Bon Accord, carried on southwards to join Stonehaven’s inshore lifeboat Jamie Hunter to carry out a search in the Portlethen area.

The call had been made just before 11am to look for a person who had been reported to the police as missing the previous evening.

However, the operation was stood down just before noon and the volunteer crews all returned to their station when the person was traced to a house in Stonehaven.

Andy Martin, lifeboat operations manager at the Stonehaven station, praised the crews for their quick response.

He said: "It’s been a busy morning for the crews in what was a well co-ordinated operation with all the rescue services working together.

"Today was a good result, and we are very grateful to our volunteer crews who are there seven days a week, 365 days a year, ready to save lives at sea."