The coast guard was pulled out with several lifeboats and a helicopter on Monday evening after a report of a red flare over the North Sea near Katwijk. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that it was not a ship’s distress signal but the setting sun, reports Broadcaster West.
After the report, two lifeboats were sent out to sea from both Katwijk and Scheveningen. The search was stopped after about half an hour, because the report turned out to be a false alarm.
A spokesperson countered Broadcaster West that he can laugh at the situation. “The detector had taken a photo of the rocket and when we looked at it, it turned out to be the sun shining a little bit through the clouds,” he says.
Boats can fire flares to show the outside world that they are in need.
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