Emergency services called out to phantom paraglider on Achill

Anton McNulty

The Achill Coast Guard, the local RNLI lifeboat and the Coast Guard helicopter were called out to help a paraglider believed to be caught on the Minaun Cliffs in Achill. However, it turned out to be a false alarm.
The emergency services received a report at 8.45pm on Sunday evening that a paraglider had been seen stuck on the rocks on the Minuan Cliffs. The incident was reported by a tourist staying at the Keel Caravan Park, approximately 3km away.
Members of the Achill Coast Guard were sent to the location with a cliff team prepared to scale the cliff for the suspected casualty. The Achill RNLI lifeboat searched the bottom of the cliff, while the Coast Guard helicopter performed a heatseeking infrared search of the area.
None of the searches found anyone along the cliff, and it soon became apparent that it was a false alarm. The search was stood down at 10.45pm.
A spokesperson for the Achill Coast Guard said they spoke to the person who made the call and were satisfied that it had been a genuine mistake.
“The visitor was holidaying in the caravan park and thought he saw something on the cliff from where he was, which was a considerable distance away. He assumed he saw a paraglider, but nobody else saw paragliders in the vicinity, and there were no vehicles parked to suggest that anyone was paragliding.
“From speaking to the person, it became clear that a lot of assumptions were made, and it may have been just the sunlight shining on a rock. There is no suggestion it was a malicious and was a genuine call,” the spokesperson said.

Smoke without fire
This was the second time in a week that the Achill Coast Guard were called out to an incident which turned out to be a false alarm. On Sunday, August 7, the coast guard received a report that a trail of smoke, believed to be from a flare, was seen at the east end of Slievemore mountain.
The incident was reported by three local people, and the local coast guard team was gathered for a search. The Coast Guard helicopter from Sligo was also drafted in, and it used heatseeking infrared cameras to search the mountain. When it could not detect any persons in the area, the decision was made to stand down the search.
The spokesperson for the Coast Guard urged members of the public not to be worried that a call might turn out to be a false alarm and to always call the emergency services with any concerns.